Swergold v. Cuomo

70 A.D.3d 1290, 896 N.Y.S.2d 495
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 25, 2010
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 70 A.D.3d 1290 (Swergold v. Cuomo) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Swergold v. Cuomo, 70 A.D.3d 1290, 896 N.Y.S.2d 495 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

Spain, J.

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court (Connolly, J.), entered May 13, 2009 in Albany County which, among other things, partially granted defendants’ cross motion to dismiss the amended complaint.

This appeal arises out of a dispute between plaintiffs, attorneys claiming entitlement to public pension benefits for their work as counsel to various municipalities while at the same time maintaining private law practices, and defendants, the entities investigating the propriety of those claims. In April 2008, defendant Comptroller announced new regulations for defendant New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System that define how local governments and school districts should classify professional service providers. Notably, the regulations now provide that if any professional individual’s employer “has a contract, retainer or other agreement to provide professional services to [a municipality], it shall be presumed that the individual is an independent contractor and not an employee” of the municipality (2 NYCRR 315.3 [c] [2] [iii]). As a result of the application of these new regulations, plaintiffs’ memberships in the Retirement System were invalidated.

Plaintiffs thereafter commenced the instant action. In their first amended complaint, plaintiffs set forth numerous causes of action against defendant Attorney General and defendant Office of the New York State Attorney General (hereinafter collectively referred to as the Attorney General), the Comptroller and defendant Office of the Comptroller of the State of New York (hereinafter collectively referred to as the Comptroller), and the Retirement System seeking, among other things, (1) declaratory judgments determining that defendants have no authority to investigate, reduce or terminate plaintiffs’ retirement benefits and that the procedures used by defendants are contrary to [1292]*1292statute and in violation of NY Constitution, article V, § 7, and (2) injunctive relief permanently prohibiting the aforementioned investigations, reductions or terminations. Plaintiffs moved for temporary injunctive relief and defendants, arguing a failure to state a cause of action, lack of standing, mootness, prematurity and failure to exhaust available administrative remedies, cross-moved to dismiss plaintiffs’ first amended complaint. Plaintiffs opposed the cross motion and, in turn, cross-moved for leave to amend their complaint a second time so as to add additional plaintiffs and remove the Attorney General as a defendant in the action.

Supreme Court denied plaintiffs’ motion for temporary injunctive relief, denied plaintiffs’ cross motion for leave to amend their complaint a second time and essentially granted defendants’ cross motion dismissing causes of action 1 through 16 in the amended complaint. However, while dismissing the injunctive relief sought in the second and sixth causes of action, the court found that sufficient facts were alleged to illustrate due process violations and, as such, partially converted said causes of action into a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78; the court also granted leave to serve an amended petition to add other individuals who it is alleged have had their Retirement System benefits adversely affected without due process. Thus, the only surviving portions of plaintiffs’ first amended complaint are two causes of action seeking injunctive relief in their new form as a proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78. Plaintiffs Nathaniel W Swergold and William M. Cullen (hereinafter collectively referred to as plaintiffs) now appeal, as limited by their brief, from so much of the order as dismissed their claims brought against the Comptroller and the Retirement System (hereinafter collectively referred to as defendants).

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Bluebook (online)
70 A.D.3d 1290, 896 N.Y.S.2d 495, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/swergold-v-cuomo-nyappdiv-2010.