Dinger v. Cefola

• Decision Date: 25 November 2015
• Citation: 133 A.D.3d 816,20 N.Y.S.3d 416
• Parties: Agnet DINGER, doing business as Cibelle Salon, appellant, v. Christopher CEFOLA, et al., respondents.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

133 A.D.3d 816

20 N.Y.S.3d 416

Agnet DINGER, doing business as Cibelle Salon, appellant,

v.Christopher CEFOLA, et al., respondents.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York.

Nov. 25, 2015.

Gallet Dreyer & Berkey, LLP, New York, N.Y. (Morrell L. Berkowitz of counsel), for appellant.

Balsamo, Byrne, Cipriani & Ellsworth, Suffern, N.Y. (Richard M. Ellsworth of counsel), for respondents.

RANDALL T. ENG, P.J., RUTH C. BALKIN, JEFFREY A. COHEN and COLLEEN D. DUFFY, JJ.

In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for wrongful eviction, the plaintiff appeals, as limited by her brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Rockland County (Berliner, J.), dated December 13, 2013, as granted that branch of the defendants' motion which was pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the causes of action alleging wrongful eviction and denied that branch of her cross motion which was for summary judgment on those causes of action.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with costs.

On a motion to dismiss a complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(7), the court must liberally construe the complaint, accept all facts as alleged in the pleading to be true, accord the plaintiff the benefit of every favorable inference, and determine only whether the facts as alleged fit within any cognizable legal theory (see Leon v. Martinez, 84 N.Y.2d 83, 87–88, 614 N.Y.S.2d 972, 638 N.E.2d 511 ; Rabos v. R & R Bagels & Bakery, Inc., 100 A.D.3d 849, 851, 955 N.Y.S.2d 109 ; Daub v. Future Tech Enter., Inc., 65 A.D.3d 1004, 1005, 885 N.Y.S.2d 115 ). Further, the court may consider affidavits submitted by the plaintiff to remedy pleading defects (see Tirpack v. 125 N. 10, LLC, 130 A.D.3d 917, 918, 14 N.Y.S.3d 110 ). Nevertheless, bare legal conclusions and factual claims which are flatly contradicted by the record are not presumed to be true (see Parola, Gross & Marino, P.C. v. Susskind, 43 A.D.3d 1020, 1021, 843 N.Y.S.2d 104 ; see Daub v. Future Tech Enter., Inc., 65 A.D.3d at 1005, 885 N.Y.S.2d 115 ). Moreover, "[w]here evidentiary material is submitted and considered on a motion to dismiss a complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(7), and the motion is not converted into one for summary judgment, the question becomes whether the plaintiff has a cause of action, not whether the plaintiff has stated one, and unless it has been shown that a material fact as claimed by the plaintiff to be one is not a fact at all and unless it can be said that no significant dispute exists regarding it, dismissal should not eventuate" (Rabos v. R & R Bagels & Bakery, Inc., 100 A.D.3d at 851–852, 955 N.Y.S.2d 109 ; see Guggenheimer v. Ginzburg, 43 N.Y.2d 268, 274–275, 401 N.Y.S.2d 182, 372 N.E.2d 17 ). A motion to dismiss a complaint based on documentary evidence pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(1) may only be granted "where the documentary evidence utterly refutes plaintiff's factual allegations, conclusively establishing a defense as a matter of law" (Goshen v. Mutual Life Ins. Co. of N.Y., 98 N.Y.2d 314, 326, 746 N.Y.S.2d 858, 774 N.E.2d 1190 ; see Rabos v. R & R Bagels & Bakery, Inc., 100 A.D.3d at 851, 955 N.Y.S.2d 109 ).

Applying these principles here, the Supreme Court properly granted that...