Opinion
September 14, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Kings County (Jackson, J.).
Ordered that the order is modified by deleting the provisions thereof which denied those branches of the appellants' motion which were to dismiss the plaintiffs' causes of action based on alleged constitutional violations and to recover punitive damages, and substituting therefor provisions granting those branches of the motion; as so modified, the order is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.
Affording the complaint a liberal construction, and accepting its allegations as true ( see, Leon v. Martinez, 84 N.Y.2d 83, 88), it nevertheless fails to state any cause of action under the State and Federal Constitutions. Moreover, since punitive damages are not available in contract actions, except under unusual circumstances not present here, the plaintiffs' allegations of entitlement to punitive damages must be stricken from the complaint ( see, Suffolk Sports Ctr. v. Belli Constr. Corp., 212 A.D.2d 241; see also, Rocanova v. Equitable Life Assur. Socy., 83 N.Y.2d 603, 613; Ciraolo v. Miller, 138 A.D.2d 443, 444).
The appellants' remaining contentions are without merit.
Bracken, J. P., Thompson, Pizzuto and Altman, JJ., concur.