Opinion
6768 Index 151694/14
06-05-2018
Lisa BYAS, Plaintiff–Respondent, v. CORNELL UNIVERSITY, Defendant–Appellant, Guy Mazza, Defendant.
Venable LLP, New York (Brian J. Clark of counsel), for appellant. Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser, LLP, New York (William J. Sipser of counsel), for respondent.
Venable LLP, New York (Brian J. Clark of counsel), for appellant.
Tuckner, Sipser, Weinstock & Sipser, LLP, New York (William J. Sipser of counsel), for respondent.
Friedman, J.P., Sweeny, Gische, Mazzarelli, Gesmer, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Shlomo Hagler, J.), entered on or about September 19, 2017, which denied the motion of defendant Cornell University for summary judgment dismissing the amended complaint, unanimously modified, on the law, to grant the motion to the extent of dismissing the second cause of action for aiding and abetting discrimination, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.
Defendant asserted that it laid plaintiff off as part of a legitimate, nondiscriminatory departmental restructuring in which it effectively eliminated her position by transferring responsibility for her duties to its partner hospital. Viewing the record in the light most favorable to plaintiff as nonmovant, we find that in opposition, plaintiff raised issues of fact as to whether defendant's proffered reason was a pretext for disability discrimination.
Since the only individual defendant has already been dismissed from the action, there is no basis for maintenance of the aiding and abetting theory pleaded in the amended complaint's second cause of action (see Administrative Code of City of N.Y. § 8–107[6]; see also Priore v. New York Yankees, 307 A.D.2d 67, 74, 761 N.Y.S.2d 608 [1st Dept. 2003], lv denied 1 N.Y.3d 504, 775 N.Y.S.2d 781, 807 N.E.2d 894 [2003] ).