When the Court of Appeals addresses CPLR 3013’s pleading requirements, litigators must take notice. Nonetheless, we suspect that most readers missed an important decision on the subject issued by the Court in June, just before the summer season began. How can that be?

Expedited Review Procedure in the Court of Appeals

For starters, the Court’s opinion in Mid-Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union v. Quartararo & Lois, 31 N.Y.3d 1090 (2018), is just two sentences in length and contains only a passing citation to CPLR 3013. Furthermore, it is the product of the Court’s expedited review procedure. 22 N.Y.C.R.R. §500.11 (“Alternative Procedure for Selected Appeals”); see David D. Siegel & Patrick M. Connors, New York Practice §536 (6th ed. 2018). The Court can invoke this procedure on its own motion, and is now doing so more frequently in important cases such as Mid-Hudson.