FILED CASE WITH POWERLESS COURT?Because she was getting some push-back from the Department of Transportation relating to a driveway permit, A. Graham filed a case with the Court of Claims. But when a judge later dismissed her dispute because it lacked the power -- or “subject matter jurisdiction" -- to hear it, Graham appealed to the Appellate Division, Third Department.
The appellate court agreed that Graham went to the wrong forum, and that she should have filed an “Article 78” proceeding in State Supreme Court rather than bring her case before the Court of Claims. The AD3 concluded that the Court of Claims lacked the authority to address Graham’s constitutional challenge of the pertinent law or regulations, to grant her request for equitable relief, nor could it properly address her “demands that an agency take particular action.”
Given that the Court of Claims was without the requisite legal authority to hear her claims, the AD3 thought Graham’s case had been properly dismissed.
That was pretty dismissive, no?
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DECISION