Gutierrez v. Cioffi

Gutierrez v Cioffi (2020 NY Slip Op 51437(U)) [*1]

Gutierrez v Cioffi

2020 NY Slip Op 51437(U) [69 Misc 3d 148(A)]

Decided on November 27, 2020

Appellate Term, First Department

Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.

This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.

Decided on November 27, 2020
SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT
PRESENT: Cooper, J.P., Higgitt, McShan, JJ.
20-149

Plaintiff appeals from a judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Bronx County (Fidel E. Gomez, J.), entered June 19, 2019, after a nonjury trial, in favor of defendants dismissing the complaint.

Per Curiam.

Judgment (Fidel E. Gomez, J.), entered June 19, 2019, affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff's replevin action to recover possession of a dog was properly dismissed after trial. Even assuming that plaintiff was not collaterally estopped from re-litigating the issue of ownership by a prior arbitration award determining that she abandoned the dog (see e.g. Humphries v City Univ. of NY, 146 AD3d 427 [2017], lv denied 30 NY3d 913 [2018]), a fair interpretation of the evidence supports a finding that plaintiff failed to establish that she had a superior possessory right to the dog than that of the defendants (see Pivar v Graduate School of Figurative Art of NY Academy of Art, 290 AD2d 212, 213 [2002]).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.

I concur I concurI concur

Decision Date: November 27, 2020