GUY DIDN’T FOLLOW PROCEDURE
Seeking to get a “delayed registration of his birth,” K. Evans filed suit in Richmond County Supreme Court to compel the New York City Department of Health to act.
Apparently, K’s mother never secured a birth certificate and his father was unknown to him. (All he had was a baptismal certificate – dated April 9, 1966 – which recorded a date of birth back in 1962.) After a Richmond County justice directed the DOH to comply with K’s request, the Appellate Division, Second Department, ended up reversing that order.
Under New York City law, [section 201.11(a), title 24 of the Rules of the City of New York], in order to secure the relief that K was seeking, he was “`required to submit an application to the Agency, accompanied by (1) "[a] certified statement issued by the [Agency] that a search was made for the record of birth in question and that such record was not found," and (2) "[s]uch documentary and other evidence as will establish … the facts and date of birth as alleged in the application.’"
Since K. bypassed that procedure, the AD2 thought the Supreme Court should have denied the request and dismissed the case (and thus reversed the lower court's determination).
And, in that way, yet another decision was born.
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DECISION