Matter of Tuitt v Molea
2013 NY Slip Op 01276 [103 AD3d 906]
February 27, 2013
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, March 27, 2013


In the Matter of Brian Tuitt, Petitioner,
v
Richard Molea, Respondent.

[*1] Brian Tuitt, Marcy, N.Y., petitioner pro se.

Eric T. Schneiderman, Attorney General, New York, N.Y. (Andrew H. Meier of counsel), for respondent.

Janet DiFiore, District Attorney, White Plains, N.Y. (John J. Carmody of counsel), nonparty pro se.

Proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78, in effect, in the nature of mandamus, inter alia, to compel the respondent, a Justice of the Supreme Court, Westchester County, to vacate an order of the same court entered August 29, 2012, in a criminal action entitled People v Tuitt, commenced in the Supreme Court, Westchester County, under indictment Number 05-0223. Motion by the petitioner to convert a portion of this proceeding into an action for declaratory relief, and application by the petitioner for poor person relief.

Ordered that the application for poor person relief is granted to the extent that the filing fee imposed by CPLR 8022 (b) is waived, and the application is otherwise denied; and it is further,

Ordered that the motion to convert a portion of this proceeding into an action for declaratory relief is denied; and it is further,

Adjudged that the petition is denied and the proceeding is dismissed on the merits, without costs or disbursements.

The extraordinary remedy of mandamus will lie only to compel the performance of a ministerial act, and only where there exists a clear legal right to the relief sought (see Matter of Legal Aid Socy. of Sullivan County v Scheinman, 53 NY2d 12, 16 [1981]). The petitioner failed to demonstrate a clear legal right to the relief sought. Eng, P.J., Rivera, Dickerson and Lott, JJ., concur.