City of New York v. Maul

• Decision Date: 15 May 1997
• Citation: City of New York v. Maul, 657 N.Y.S.2d 644, 239 A.D.2d 225 (N.Y. App. Div. 1997)
• Parties: The CITY OF NEW YORK, et al., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. Thomas A. MAUL, etc., Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 644

657 N.Y.S.2d 644

239 A.D.2d 225

The CITY OF NEW YORK, et al., Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. Thomas A. MAUL, etc., Defendant-Appellant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division First Department.

May 15, 1997.

Margaret G. King, for plaintiffs-respondents.

Victor Paladino, for defendant-appellant.

Before SULLIVAN, J.P., and ELLERIN, RUBIN and MAZZARELLI, JJ.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Salvador Collazo, J.), entered August 24, 1995, which, inter alia, awarded plaintiffs the City of New York and the New York City Health and Hospitals Corp. damages against defendant Thomas A. Maul, as Commissioner of the New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities ["ORMDD"], and order and judgment (one paper), same court and Justice, entered January 30, 1996, increasing said award, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and said order and order and judgment (one paper) vacated insofar as they award plaintiffs monetary damages.

Since the IAS court inexplicably declined to find that defendant's failure to fully comply with a so-ordered stipulation requiring it to provide certain services to disabled residents of New York City was contemptuous within the meaning of § 753 of the Judiciary Law, defendant could not be fined under that statute. While we would hold that the record clearly mandates a finding to the contrary, plaintiffs' failure to appeal from the IAS court's ruling precludes us...