New York Court of Appeals Roundup: Defibrillators, Paid Fact Testimony, Consecutive Sentences
In their monthly column in the New York Law Journal, Roy Reardon and William Russell discuss an appeal concerning the effect of Section 627-a of the General Business Law. The court found that, while the statute requires health clubs to maintain defibrillators, it did not create an inherent duty to use the device when a gym member is in cardiac distress. They also cover a case in which the court found that a $10,000 payment to a fact witness in connection with his appearance at trial did not require the exclusion of his testimony. Finally, they address an appeal in which the court determined that a sentencing judge was not required to inform a criminal defendant that, as a repeat felony offender, his sentence would be served consecutively to a previously imposed sentence for other crimes.