NIECE CLAIMS TO BE IGNORANT OF ANY ARRANGEMENT
After MWP filed a small claims case against her niece – her brother’s daughter – claiming that the latter would reimburse MWP for a $5000 legal fee that had been advanced to the niece's dad, the Queens County Civil Court ended up dismissing the case.
On appeal, the Appellate Term, Second Department, noted that the niece testified that she had no knowledge of any legal-fee arrangement with her father, nor had she been given any cash to pay her aunt back.
Given those facts, and deferring to the trial court’s credibility assessments, the AT2 thought that “substantial justice” had been effected by the dismissal in this instance and left the outcome undisturbed.
Think someone cried uncle?
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DECISION