In a recent unanimous decision, the Appellate Division, Second Department, overturned the dismissal of a lawsuit against three police officers who were not named in the Notices of Claim. The decision in Blake v. City of New York, 148 A.D.3d 1101 (2d Dept. 2017), overruled prior cases in the Second Department and came just 15 months after the First Department reached the opposite conclusion in Alvarez v. City of New York, 134 A.D.3d 599 (1st Dept. 2015). With this department split, it will only be a matter of time before the Court of Appeals is asked whether claimants are required to name individual municipal employees in their Notices of Claim.
Background
Blake stems from the arrest and indictment of the plaintiffs for their alleged involvement in an October 2008 shooting in Queens. After approximately 16 months in jail awaiting trial, a police informant who had positively identified the plaintiffs in two photo arrays recanted his identification and the charges were dismissed. The plaintiffs then filed lawsuits against, inter alia, the City of New York and five individual police officers for false arrest, malicious prosecution, and civil rights violations. Three of the named police officers, who were not identified in the Notices of Claim, moved for dismissal since they were not named in the Notices of Claim. Supreme Court granted dismissal on this basis and the plaintiffs appealed.
