Justia New York Court of Appeals Opinion Summaries

Plaintiff, administrator of decedent's estate, brought this negligence and wrongful death action against defendant. At issue was whether the trial court, in awarding preverdict interest, properly discounted wrongful death damages back to the date of decedent's death and awarded interest from the date of death to the date of the verdict. Applying the EPTL 5-4.3 and its predecessor statutes, the court held that prejudgment interest in a wrongful death action was part of the damages and that such interest should run from the date of death to the date of the verdict. Furthermore, it has long been a rule in New York that the damages on a wrongful death action were due on the date of the death of the plaintiff's decedent. Accordingly, the court affirmed the judgment. View "Toledo v Christo" on Justia Law

This case involved a longstanding dispute over who bore the burden of paying the educational costs for the children of St. Basil, a child car institution located within the boundaries of the school district and housed primarily Greek Orthodox children whose parents were unable to care for them due to certain circumstances. The court concluded that the Education Law specified that children living in such institutions were not deemed residents of the school district in which the institution was located purely by reason of their presence in the institution; the issuance of a license to operate a child care institution did not change the residence of the children living there; and there is nothing to suggest that the Legislature intended the local school district to bear the entire financial burden for those children living in a child care institution. Therefore, the court held that a school district was not obligated to provide a tuition-free education to those children determined to be nonresidents of the school district. View "Board of Educ. of the Garrison Union Free School Dist. v Greek Archdiocese Inst. of St. Basil" on Justia Law