Matter of Masich v Ward
2009 NY Slip Op 06258 [65 AD3d 817]
August 19, 2009
Appellate Division, Fourth Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, September 30, 2009


In the Matter of Charles G. Masich et al., Appellants, v Dennis E. Ward et al., Constituting the Erie County Board of Elections, et al., Respondents, and New York State Independence Party Committee et al., Respondents.

[*1] Jerome D. Schad, Williamsville, for petitioners-appellants.

John Ciampoli, Albany, for respondent-respondent New York State Independence Party Committee.

Bouvier Partnership, LLP, Buffalo (Emilio Colaiacovo of counsel), for respondents-respondents Becky Jo Summers et al.

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Erie County (Frank A. Sedita, Jr., J., for Diane Y. Devlin, J.), entered August 11, 2009 in a proceeding pursuant to Election Law article 16. The order dismissed the petition.

It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: Supreme Court properly dismissed the petition seeking to invalidate the certificate authorizing over 100 designating petitions for candidates in Erie County based on the failure to join 102 unnamed candidates whose names appear on the certificate of authorization issued by the New York State Independence Party Executive Committee. Because there was only a single certificate of authorization, the 102 unnamed candidates would have been inequitably affected had the court granted the relief sought in the petition, and petitioners thus were required to join them as necessary parties (see CPLR 1001 [a]; 1003). In view of our determination, we need not address the merits of the petition. Present—Scudder, P.J., Hurlbutt, Martoche, Green and Pine, JJ.