Legislative policy and societal interests underlying Article 2 of the CPLR, Limitations of Time, require every claim to have an expiration date. CPLR 213(2) states, in pertinent part: “The following actions must be commenced within six years: (2) “an action upon a contractual obligation or liability, express or implied …”

In CPLR 213(2), Judicial Breach of Public Policy, Legislative Amendment Required, Part I, NYLJ (Oct. 14, 2021) and Part II (Oct. 15, 2021), this column studied the cases from the First (Schnee v. Schnee, 110 A.D.3d 427 (1st Dep’t 2013)), Second (Fragin v. Fragin, 80 A.D.3d 725 (2d Dep’t 2011), Bayen v. Bayen, 81 A.D.3d 865 (2d Dep’t 2011), Denaro v. Denaro, 84 A.D.3d 1148 (2d Dep’t 2011), and Brewster v. Anthony-Brewster, 174 A.D.3d 566 (2d Dep’t 2019)), and Third (Holsberger v. Holsberger, 154 A.D.3d 1208 (3d Dep’t 2017)) Departments, which, based on a hypertechnical reading of the Article 2 of the CPLR, ran afoul of legislative intent, the statutory scheme and social policy by annulling the statutory six-year limitation period thereby indefinitely extending enforcement of spousal agreements, which were incorporated into and survived a judgment of divorce, where enforcement is initiated by motion rather than by plenary action. The reasoning behind these cases is anchored in Fragin: “[O]nly actions are subject to a six-year statute of limitations pursuant to CPLR 213[2]. Here, that branch of the defendant’s motion which was to enforce the parties’ separation agreement is not subject to a statute of limitations defense.”

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]