Opinion
570958/11
04-17-2012
Pathfinder Equine Publications and Camille Matthews, Plaintiffs-Respondents, v. Self Publishing, Inc. and RJ Communications, LLC, Defendants-Appellants.
PRESENT: , III, P.J., Shulman, Torres, JJ
Defendants appeal from an order of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Margaret A. Chan, J.), entered October 21, 2011, which denied their preanswer motion to dismiss the complaint based on documentary evidence (CPLR 3211[a][1]) and failure to state a cause of action (CPLR 3211[a][7]).
Per Curiam.
Order (Margaret A. Chan, J.), entered October 21, 2011, affirmed, with $10 costs.
Considering the verified complaint in the light most favorable to plaintiff, as is required on review of a CPLR 3211 motion to dismiss, we find that it asserts actions and omissions by defendant that support at least a viable claim for breach of contract. It cannot presently be determined on the preanswer record now before us whether, as alleged, defendant failed to print the books ordered by plaintiff in accordance with contractual specifications. Resolution of that issue, in turn, hinges on whether the one-page purchase order relied upon by defendant was intended by the parties to constitute a complete and integrated agreement and, if so, the proper meaning to be given to the various technical, abbreviated and numerical terms set forth therein, matters similarly unanswerable on the limited record generated below. Where, as here, a dismissal motion is addressed to the complaint as a whole rather than to individual causes of action, dismissal is proper only where none of the causes of action is valid (see Elias v Handler, 155 AD2d 583, 584 [1989]; compare Gamiel v Curtis & Reiss-Curtis, P.C., 16 AD3d 140, 141 [2005]). Having determined that plaintiff stated a valid contractual claim, we need not address the sufficiency of the remaining causes of action in sustaining the denial of defendant's dismissal motion.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.
I concurI concurI concur