From Casetext: Smarter Legal Research

Goodkind v. WFS Investors Corp.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Apr 26, 1993
192 A.D.2d 694 (N.Y. App. Div. 1993)

Opinion

April 26, 1993

Appeal from the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Delaney, J.).


Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, with costs.

The Supreme Court properly sustained the defendants' invocation of the doctrine of collateral estoppel to preclude the plaintiff from relitigating the issue presented in the instant action. In a prior administrative proceeding, the Village of Irvington Zoning Board of Appeals (hereinafter the Zoning Board) specifically rendered a decision adverse to the plaintiff on the identical issue which now undergirds each of his three causes of action, notably, whether one of Fieldpoint's subdivision units bordered the plaintiff's property in violation of the plat approved by the Village of Irvington Planning Board. It is well settled that "`[w]henever any board, tribunal or person is by law vested with authority to judicially determine a question, such a determination, when it has become final, is as conclusive as though the adjudication had been made by a court of general jurisdiction'" (Jones v Young, 257 App. Div. 563, 565-566, quoting 2 Freeman, Judgments § 633 [5th ed]; see also, Matter of Kennedy v Zoning Bd. of Appeals, 145 A.D.2d 490). After lengthy proceedings, the Zoning Board determined that Fieldpoint had not constructed the subject subdivision unit in violation of the plat approved by the Village Planning Board. Since the issue is decisive of the present action and the plaintiff had a full and fair opportunity to contest the Zoning Board's determination, the plaintiff was properly precluded from relitigating it in the Supreme Court (see, Kaufman v Lilly Co., 65 N.Y.2d 449, 455; Ryan v New York Tel. Co., 62 N.Y.2d 494, 500-501; see also, Malloy v Trombley, 50 N.Y.2d 46, 50). Thompson, J.P., Rosenblatt, Miller and Pizzuto, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Goodkind v. WFS Investors Corp.

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Apr 26, 1993
192 A.D.2d 694 (N.Y. App. Div. 1993)
Case details for

Goodkind v. WFS Investors Corp.

Case Details

Full title:LOUIS W. GOODKIND, Appellant, v. WFS INVESTORS CORP. et al., Respondents

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: Apr 26, 1993

Citations

192 A.D.2d 694 (N.Y. App. Div. 1993)
597 N.Y.S.2d 130

Citing Cases

Town of Wallkill v. Lachmann

However, the issue of whether the business the defendants conducted on the property constituted a…