Friday, June 8, 2012

New York’s highest court issues new decisions

The New York State Court of Appeals has issued a number of new decisions this week on several important issues in civil and criminal law.

Among the cases, the state’s high court ruled on the following issues:

• whether the Family Court may direct continuing contact between a jailed parent and his child once parental rights have been terminated due to permanent neglect;
• whether the trial court’s error in denying a criminal defendant's requests for a severance based on the improper joinder of certain counts relating only to a co-defendant is harmless;
• whether the landlord of a New York City loft who has not complied with the Loft Law may maintain an ejectment action based on non-payment of rent;
• whether a college baseball pitcher assumed the risk of injury associated with his indoor practice;
• whether a historian is entitled under the Freedom of Information Law to unredacted transcripts of interviews that would identify informants who were promised confidentiality during investigations of school employees suspected of communist party ties.

The decisions are available to the public and can be found at the court’s website.