Publications

In their monthly column in the New York Law Journal, Roy Reardon and Mary Elizabeth McGarry discuss the impact of late notice in the context of a prosecutor's failure to notify a defendant of an eavesdropping warrant no more than 90 days after the warrant's termination, as required by the Criminal Procedure Law. The New York Court of Appeals recently ruled that unless the defendant can show prejudice due to late notice, the wiretap evidence need not be suppressed.  The Court also recently addressed the question of late notice in considering equitable relief to an out-of-possession commercial tenant that fails to strictly comply with the renewal terms of a lease through inadvertence or negligence. It held that because a refusal to grant equitable relief to the plaintiff tenant/sublessor would not cause it to experience a forfeiture the failure to give notice properly would not be excused, even though the subtenant in possession had made capital improvements to the premises and would experience a forfeiture as a result of the sublessor's error. Finally, the Court disposed of a tort case on the ground that proximate cause was lacking, as a matter of law.