State of New York

Supreme Court, Appellate Division

Third Judicial Department

Decided and Entered: October 27, 2016 522056 

________________________________

DANIEL L. STILES,

Respondent,

v MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

BRUCE E. GRAVES et al.,

Appellants.

________________________________

Calendar Date: September 9, 2016

Before: McCarthy, J.P., Egan Jr., Devine, Clark and Aarons, JJ.

__________

Bartlett, Pontiff, Stewart & Rhodes, PC, Glens Falls (Mark

E. Cerasano of counsel), for appellants.

FitzGerald Morris Baker Firth, PC, Glens Falls (John D.

Aspland Jr. of counsel), for respondent.

__________

McCarthy, J.P.

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court (Krogmann, J.),

entered February 2, 2015 in Washington County, which, among other

things, after a nonjury trial, dismissed the complaint without

prejudice.

In November 2002, plaintiff commenced this action pursuant

to RPAPL 871 seeking the removal of a barrier installed by

defendants that plaintiff alleged impeded the use of a

right-of-way to which he had an easement. Approximately seven

years later, in November 2009, a nonjury trial was held. More

than five years after the close of proof in the trial, in early

2015, Supreme Court issued an order. Among other things, the

court specifically found that plaintiff failed to prove a fact

essential to his claim for relief pursuant to RPAPL 871, i.e.,
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the location of the right-of-way, without which the court could

not assess whether defendants' barrier interfered with any of

plaintiff's property rights. Despite finding that plaintiff had,

after a full trial, failed to prove his claim, the court

specified that the dismissal of the complaint was "without

prejudice." Defendants appeal.

Defendants contend that, given that plaintiff was provided

with a full and fair opportunity to prove his claim by way of a

complete trial, Supreme Court's dismissal ought to have been on

the merits, with prejudice. We agree. The governing rational

underlying principles of finality in this state is that "a party

who has been given a full and fair opportunity to litigate a

claim should not be allowed to do so again" (Matter of Hunter, 4

NY3d 260, 269 [2005]; see Gramatan Home Invs. Corp. v Lopez 46

NY2d 481, 485 [1979]). "Considerations of judicial economy as

well as fairness to the parties mandate, at some point, an end to

litigation" (Matter of Reilly v Reid, 45 NY2d 24, 28 [1978]

[emphasis added]; accord Matter of Hunter, 4 NY3d at 269). A

court denies parties such finality, however, when it dismisses an

action without prejudice; such a determination permits a

plaintiff to relitigate an identical claim to that which has been

dismissed (see City of New York v Caristo Constr. Corp., 62 NY2d

819, 820-821 [1984]; Matter of Coleman v Coleman, 1 AD3d 833, 834

[2003]; A. Colish, Inc. v Abramson, 178 AD2d 252, 252 [1991]).

The question before this Court is whether Supreme Court's

determination ought to have provided finality as to plaintiff's

RPAPL 871 claim. Having been afforded with a full trial,1

plaintiff received all of the conceivable process available to a

party who bears the burden of proving a legal claim.2 After both

1 Contrary to plaintiff's contention, a court's

determination upon the completion of trial cannot be likened to

its determination of a defendant's motion to dismiss a complaint

made midtrial (compare CPLR 5013).

2 Plaintiff does not allege that any legal errors occurred

during the trial that deprived him of any process to which he was

entitled. 
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parties presented their cases at trial, the court considered the

evidence that was presented and substantively determined that

plaintiff failed to establish his claim.3 Accordingly, there is

nothing in this record suggesting that plaintiff was provided

with anything less than "a full and fair opportunity to litigate

[his] claim" (Matter of Hunter, 4 NY3d at 269). Moreover, we

recognize that both defendants and the public have a legitimate

and compelling interest in preventing the redundancy of

litigation that took more than 12 years to reach a trial court

determination. Given plaintiff's full and fair opportunity to

litigate his claim and this state's strong public policy that a

final determination result after the provision of such judicial

process, we reverse so much of the order as specified that the

dismissal was without prejudice. This determination renders

defendants' remaining arguments academic. 

Egan Jr., Devine, Clark and Aarons, JJ., concur.

ORDERED that the order is modified, on the law, with costs

to defendants, by reversing so much thereof as dismissed the

complaint without prejudice; complaint dismissed with prejudice;

and, as so modified, affirmed.

ENTER:

Robert D. Mayberger

Clerk of the Court

3 Plaintiff did not opt to challenge that determination by

way of an appeal.