The Appellate Division, Second Department's recent decision in Buckeye Retirement Co., LLC, Ltd. v. Quattrocchi offers two interesting points regarding the CPLR. The plaintiff obtained a money judgment in Supreme Court, which was in its favor and against the defendant in the principal sum of $18,145.52. The plaintiff sought to enforce the judgment by serving a judicial subpoena and a restraining notice in Supreme Court. When the defendant failed to comply with the subpoena, the plaintiff moved in Supreme Court to hold the defendant in contempt of court and to compel the defendant to comply with the subpoena. Without deciding the plaintiff's motion, Supreme Court, sua sponte, removed the action to the Civil Court pursuant to CPLR 325(d).
The Second Department reversed Supreme Court's decision to remove the action, holding that a motion to hold a party in contempt of court "with respect to an enforcement procedure" may only be brought in a court in which a special proceeding to enforce a money judgment may be commenced. The Court reasoned that the plaintiff properly brought the contempt motion in Supreme Court, since the judgment it was seeking to enforce was entered in the Supreme Court (see CPLR 5210, 5221).
The second interesting point is that the Second Department treated the notice of appeal, on its on motion, as a motion for leave to appeal and granted leave to hear the appeal and reverse the trial court's order (sse CPLR 5701[c]).
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