| Eisen v Bank of New York |
| 2003 NY Slip Op 51760(U) [18 Misc 3d 134(A)] |
| Decided on September 26, 2003 |
| Appellate Term, First Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| As corrected in part through February 1, 2008; it will not be published in the printed Official Reports. |
Plaintiff appeals from a judgment of the Small Claims Part of the Civil Court, New York
County, entered on or about November 14, 2002 after trial (Cynthia S. Kern, J.) in favor of
defendant dismissing the action.
PER CURIAM:
Judgment entered on or about November 14, 2002 (Cynthia S. Kern, J.) affirmed, without costs.
Plaintiff instituted this small claims action to recover interest allegedly due on certain bearer
bonds issued in 1976 by a non-party entity and called for redemption in December 1999 by the
defendant bank. On a prior appeal, this Court defined the dispositive issue to be whether
defendant complied with "the bond requirement that notice of redemption be published in a
newspaper of general circulation which carries financial news . . . and is customarily published
each business day in the City of New York.'" (NYLJ, June 24, 2002, at 20, col 3.) No basis exists
to disturb the trial court's express finding, made after a full and fair hearing, that defendant
published its redemption notice in accordance with the above-quoted publication requirement of
the underlying bond resolution. As the trial court noted, the evidence undisputedly showed that
the Bond Buyer, the daily financial newspaper in which defendant's redemption notice
appeared, though lacking "an enormous circulation generally, . . . clearly has a [*2]strong circulation within the community of bond buyers and bond
sellers" and is "routinely" used for the publication of redemption notices (see, Gampel
v Burlington Indus., 43 Misc 2d 846). "The requirements of the [bond resolution] . . . are not
so stringent that actual notice must be established by resort to mathematical probabilities. If the
type of
publication employed is reasonably calculated to give
notice to the persons affected, it is adequate since the law does not guarantee the efficacy
of its processes to carry home notice to every interested mind." (Barrett v Cuskelly, 52
Misc 2d 250, 252, affd 28 AD2d 532).
Nor is appellate intervention warranted merely because the notice issue raised by plaintiff
may be arguable. "[A] small claims judgment may not be overturned simply because the
determination appealed from involves an arguable point on which an appellate court may differ;
the deviation from substantive law must be readily apparent and the court's determination clearly
erroneous." (Schiffman v
Deluxe Caterers of Shelter Rock, 100 AD2d 846, 846-847). The record herein
establishes that the trial court's determination met the governing "substantial justice" standard
(CCA 1804, 1807; see, Williams v Roper, 269 AD2d 125, lv dismissed
95 NY2d 898).
This constitutes the decision and order of the court.
Decision Date: September 26, 2003