New York Counsel Successful on Opposing Appeal Against Manhattan Hotel

New York Counsel, Nadia Del Toro recently took over a case in the appeal process from her former colleague Elio Di Berardino who passed away unexpectedly in January 2021. For this file, Nadia continued to work on the brief and argued the case before the New York Appellate Division.

Our attorney defended a luxury midtown Manhattan hotel against a plaintiff who, in this matter, was a guest that refused to pay her hotel bill and was ultimately arrested. Our attorneys moved to dismiss plaintiff’s complaint which alleged, inter alia, assault and battery, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution and civil rights violations. The plaintiff’s complaint was untimely served and the statute of limitations had expired on most of the causes of action. At that time, plaintiff cross-moved for an extension of time to serve the complaint arguing law office failure, alleging meritorious claims and argued that allowing the action to proceed would serve the interests of justice.

Nadia was successful after oral argument before the Appellate Court, and the Court affirmed the lower court’s decision dismissing the complaint and denying plaintiff’s cross-motion. In it’s decision, the Court stated that law office failure was not reasonable in light of the length of the delay and plaintiff’s counsel’s failure to explain the reason for not serving a complaint after demands by each set of defendants. Our attorney also argued, and the court agreed, that in light of such failure, the court did not need to reach the merits of plaintiff’s claims.

Nadia focuses her practice on defending high exposure New York labor law and general liability cases for primary and excess insurance carriers. She has extensive litigation experience in New York state courts and mediating complex cases involving multiple corporate parties. Nadia has successfully obtained outright dismissal of claims against her clients in complex cases involving contractual indemnification. Her experience includes defending government entities, general contractors, sub-contractors and railroad companies, and clients against products liability actions.