Plaintiff appeals from a judgment of the Small Claims Part of the Civil Court, New York County, entered on or about October 10, 2001 after trial (Joan M. Kenney, J.) in favor of defendant dismissing the action.

PER CURIAM:

Judgment entered on or about October 10, 2001 (Joan M. Kenney, J.) affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff commenced this small claims action in May 2001 to recover interest allegedly due on certain bearer bonds issued in 1976 by a non-party entity and called for redemption in 1999 by the defendant bank. The principal issue raised on appeal is whether defendant published its notice of redemption in accordance with the terms of the underlying bond resolution requiring publication in a daily financial newspaper of "general circulation". While it was error in the context of this case for the trial court to attempt to resolve the publication issue on the basis of judicial notice (see generally, Prince, Richardson on Evidence §§ 2-201, 2-205 (Farrell 11th ed]), the same publication issue has by now been fully and fairly litigated by these parties in a closely related, but [*3]separately prosecuted small claims action instituted by plaintiff in June 2001. The express judicial finding in the companion case that defendant's redemption notice complied with the bond publication requirement, a finding sustained by this Court on appeal (NYLJ, Sept. 30, 2003, at 23, col 1), must be given preclusive effect herein under familiar principles of collateral estoppel.

Also unavailing are plaintiff's vaguely-stated, alternative arguments that he is entitled to recover a "fair share" of the bond interest because defendant improperly "held on" to the corpus of the bond funds and was somehow obligated to directly notify him that the bearer bonds were called (see, Ehag Eisenbahnwerie Holding Aktiengesellschaft v National Bank of Roumania, 306 NY 242, 251-252; Schleider v Smith, Barney, Harris, Upsham & Co., 146 Misc 2d 583). Accordingly, dismissal of the action accomplished "substantial justice" consistent with substantive law principles (see, CCA 1804, 1807).
Decision Date: October 17, 2003