New York Court of Appeals Roundup: Condemnation, Canine Sniff Searches, Privity for Legal Malpractice
In their monthly column in the New York Law Journal, Roy Reardon and Mary Elizabeth McGarry discuss the Court of Appeals’ decision in Matter of Kaur v. New York State Urban Development Corp., to uphold the exercise of the power of eminent domain to condemn private property to be developed by Columbia University for campus extension and other uses. They also discuss People v. Devone, in which the Court disagreed with the conclusion of the U.S. Supreme Court that a canine sniff of the exterior of a vehicle does not constitute a search. Finally, they discussed the Court’s decision in Estate of Schneider v. Finmann, that an estate representative may assert a malpractice claim against the deceased’s estate planning counsel, but in dicta stated that beneficiaries and other third parties of the estate may not.