Opinion
5893 Claim 126836
03-06-2018
Tonyia B. WATSON, Claimant–Appellant, v. The STATE of New York, Defendant–Respondent.
Tonyia B. Watson, appellant pro se. Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York (David Lawrence III of counsel), for respondent.
Tonyia B. Watson, appellant pro se.
Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York (David Lawrence III of counsel), for respondent.
Friedman, J.P., Tom, Webber, Kern, JJ.
Order, Court of Claims of the State of New York (Faviola A. Soto, J.), entered July 1, 2016, which granted defendant's motion to dismiss the claim, unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The claim at issue was properly dismissed where claimant failed to comply with the pleading requirements of Court of Claims Act § 11(b) (see Lepkowski v. State of New York, 1 N.Y.3d 201, 208–209, 770 N.Y.S.2d 696, 802 N.E.2d 1094 [2003] ). Notwithstanding claimant's pro se status, strict construction of and compliance with such statutory preconditions to suit under the Court of Claims Act is required (see Kolnacki v. State of New York, 8 N.Y.3d 277, 280–281, 832 N.Y.S.2d 481, 864 N.E.2d 611 [2007] ; Morra v. State of New York, 107 A.D.3d 1115, 967 N.Y.S.2d 169 [3d Dept. 2013] ). Thus, the court correctly observed that this claim suffers from the same judicial infirmities as claimant's prior claims (see 147 A.D.3d 708, 47 N.Y.S.3d 707 [1st Dept. 2017], lv denied 29 N.Y.3d 1114, 61 N.Y.S.3d 202, 83 N.E.3d 212 [2017] ).