MEANINGFUL REVIEW COULDN’T BE PERFORMED ABSENT ALL DOCUMENTS
In a personal-injury lawsuit filed with the Kings County Supreme Court, the defendant made multiple motions “to stay the action, vacate the note of issue, and compel discovery.” While a request for a stay was previously granted, on May 6, 2022, when the defendant again moved for the identical relief, claiming that the plaintiff’s prior attorney was involved in a “proven insurance fraud scheme involving staged trip and fall accidents,” that request was denied.
When the dispute got to the Appellate Division, Second Department, it noted that the parties referenced arguments and exhibits that were supposedly attached to, or incorporated in, prior papers (earlier motions), but none of those documents were provided to the appellate court.
Since the absence of all the underlying papers -- including “a copy of the complaint in this action, the amended complaint, or the defendant's answer" -- precluded a “meaningful review," and given the requirement that an appellant “assemble a proper record on appeal,” the AD2 felt it had little choice but to dismiss the appeal.
Was that an unappealing outcome?
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DECISION