Summerville v. City of New York

767 N.E.2d 140, 97 N.Y.2d 427, 740 N.Y.S.2d 683, 2002 N.Y. LEXIS 493
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 19, 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 767 N.E.2d 140 (Summerville v. City of New York) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Summerville v. City of New York, 767 N.E.2d 140, 97 N.Y.2d 427, 740 N.Y.S.2d 683, 2002 N.Y. LEXIS 493 (N.Y. 2002).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Levine, J.

CPLR 5519 consolidates all of the provisions of the State’s civil procedure code regarding stays pending appeal. This appeal requires us to address the interplay between two subdivisions of CPLR 5519 — CPLR 5519 (a) and (e). CPLR 5519 (a) (1) grants an automatic stay to the State, and its political subdivisions, their agencies and officers, pending an appeal from a judgment or order. CPLR 5519 (e) provides that a stay will be continued pending resolution of a second-level appeal or until a motion for permission to take such an appeal is denied, provided the governmental appellant serves and files its notice of appeal or motion for leave to appeal within five days after service of an adverse order with notice of entry.

[431]*431The dispositive question is whether a governmental appellant obtains a new automatic stay under CPLR 5519 (a) when it appeals or files a motion for leave to appeal from an adverse order of an intermediate appellate court, even though it allowed its original automatic stay to lapse by failing to serve and file as required by CPLR 5519 (e) to continue that stay. We answer that question in the affirmative and, therefore, hold that although the City failed to take the steps needed to continue its original automatic stay under CPLR 5519 (e), it obtained a new automatic stay when it moved for leave to appeal to this Court.

Plaintiff commenced this personal injury action against the City of New York, seeking damages for injuries inflicted by a police officer. Following a jury trial and reduction of the damages award by the trial court (to which plaintiff consented), a structured judgment was entered in May 1997 pursuant to CPLR article 50-B, awarding plaintiff approximately $5 million against the City. The City appealed, automatically staying enforcement of the judgment pursuant to CPLR 5519 (a) (1).

The Appellate Division modified the judgment only by deleting the provisions that awarded plaintiff $4 million for past and future pain and suffering, and granting a new trial with respect to those damages unless plaintiff stipulated to reduce them to the principal sum of $2 million “and to the entry of appropriate amended judgment in his favor” (257 AD2d 566, 567). The order further provided that “in the event that the plaintiff so stipulates, then the judgment as so reduced and amended is affirmed, * * * and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court * * * for entry of an appropriate amended judgment accordingly” (id.).

On January 11, 1999, plaintiff personally served the City with a copy of the Appellate Division order with notice of entry. In March, plaintiff stipulated to accept the reduced damages award and, on July 6, 1999, the first amended judgment was entered and personally served on the City with notice of entry. That judgment entitled plaintiff to receive an initial lump sum payment (see CPLR 5041 [b]) of $598,692, and required the City to purchase an annuity contract providing for monthly payments of the appropriately adjusted amount of the remaining damages (see CPLR 5041 [e]). CPLR 5043 (a) required the City to post the annuity contract as security “within thirty days after the date the judgment [was] entered.”

By letter dated July 16, 1999, plaintiff requested the City to “promptly satisfy the judgment against it, including the tender [432]*432of a conforming annuity contract.” The City did not respond. Rather, on August 5, 1999, the City moved at the Appellate Division for leave to appeal to this Court.

On August 16, 1999, while the City’s motion for leave to appeal was still pending before the Appellate Division, plaintiff moved at Supreme Court for an order directing acceleration of payments pursuant to CPLR 5044. Section 5044 provides that if a structured judgment debtor “fails for any reason to make a payment in a timely fashion according to the terms of’ article 50-B, upon the judgment creditor’s petition an order may be granted accelerating all of the periodic payments without conversion to present value. On August 18, 1999, the Appellate Division denied the City’s motion for leave to appeal. On September 23, 1999, the City moved at this Court for leave to appeal. We denied that motion by order dated November 30, 1999, and plaintiff personally served the City with a copy of that order with notice of entry on December 3, 1999.

On December 10, 1999, Supreme Court granted plaintiffs motion for accelerated payment of the full amount of the first amended judgment without discounting it to present value. The court read CPLR 5519 (a) (1) and (e) as collectively providing for only a single automatic stay pending an appeal, which expires unless the governmental entity seeks further appellate review within the time specified in CPLR 5519 (e). Because the City failed to obtain a discretionary stay after its automatic stay purportedly had lapsed, the court charged the City with delay in making the required payments under the first amended judgment from July 12, 1999 to the date of its order. The court found that such a delay constituted untimeliness, granted acceleration and entered a second amended judgment accordingly.

The Appellate Division affirmed the second amended judgment, agreeing with Supreme Court that no new automatic stay came into existence either when the City moved at the Appellate Division for leave to appeal to this Court or when it made that same motion here (282 AD2d 519). It also agreed that the City’s resulting delay in making the payments under the first amended judgment from July 12,1999 to the December date of the Supreme Court order justified acceleration of the payments, as reflected in the second amended judgment. We granted leave to appeal and now reverse.

CPLR 5519 (a) (1) provides that service by a governmental entity “upon the adverse party of a notice of appeal or an affi[433]*433davit of intention to move for permission to appeal stays all proceedings to enforce the judgment or order appealed from pending the appeal or determination on the motion for permission to appeal.” CPLR 5519 (e), in turn, provides for the continuation of a stay for five days after service upon an appellant of the adverse order with notice of its entry. It also provides for the further continuation of that stay where an additional appeal is pursued within that same five-day period.

The courts below held that while the City was entitled to an automatic stay under CPLR 5519 (a) (1) during its initial appeal to the Appellate Division, it forfeited the right to an automatic stay pending resolution of its motion for leave to appeal to this Court when it failed to satisfy the requirements of CPLR 5519 (e) (see also Town of Orangetown v Magee, 216 AD2d 343 [2d Dept]; but see New York State Assn. of Counties v Axelrod, 213 AD2d 18 [3d Dept 1995], lv dismissed 87 NY2d 918 [1996]). We disagree with this interpretation of the interrelationship between CPLR 5519 (a) (1) and (e).

CPLR 5519 (a) (1) does not limit availability of a governmental appellant’s automatic stay to appeals to the Appellate Division, but by its terms applies to all appeals and motions for leave to appeal, including those to this Court. The express language of CPLR 5519 (e) similarly does not preclude the possibility of successive automatic stays pending successive appeals or motions for leave to appeal by governmental entities. Rather, subdivision (e) merely provides for the “[c]ontinuation of [an original] stay,” allowing an appellant to retain a stay arising from a first stage appeal

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Bluebook (online)
767 N.E.2d 140, 97 N.Y.2d 427, 740 N.Y.S.2d 683, 2002 N.Y. LEXIS 493, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/summerville-v-city-of-new-york-ny-2002.