154 A.D.2d 642 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1989
— In a claim to recover damages for injuries sustained as a result of wrongful conviction and imprisonment, the claimant appeals from a judgment of the Court of Claims (Rossetti, J.), dated May 2, 1988, which dismissed his claim on the ground that he had been fully compensated for his unjust conviction and imprisonment by virtue of the settlement of a Federal civil rights action previously brought by him.
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, with costs.
In Juñe 1982 the claimant was convicted of murder in the second degree for murdering his estranged wife’s foster mother, and assault in the first degree for assaulting his estranged wife. He was sentenced to concurrent terms of 25 years’ to life imprisonment and 5 to 15 years’ imprisonment. After serving approximately 19 Vi months of his sentence, the claimant was released when information surfaced proving that his estranged wife had committed the murder and had inflicted the injuries upon herself, the claimant was innocent of the crimes, and the police had suppressed evidence that would have exculpated the claimant.
Thereafter the claimant commenced a Federal civil rights
The claimant then filed a claim against New York State pursuant to Court of Claims Act § 8-b (known as the Unjust Conviction and Imprisonment Act of 1984), alleging severe mental and physical injuries, loss of liberty and loss of income as a result of his wrongful conviction and imprisonment. Following a trial at which the claimant was the only witness, the Court of Claims dismissed his claim, finding that his pecuniary and nonpecuniary damages amounted to $240,000, but that the settlement in the Federal court action had already fully compensated him therefor.
On appeal, the claimant contends that the Court of Claims had no authority to offset the settlement of his civil rights action against his award under Court of Claims Act § 8-b, because this statute, which was designed to discharge a moral obligation of the State without any showing of wrongdoing, contains no provision expressly forbidding a double recovery. The claimant’s contention is without merit.
A review of the legislative history reveals that in enacting Court of Claims Act § 8-b, the State assumed a moral obligation to compensate innocent persons who have been unjustly convicted and imprisoned but who were otherwise barred from recovery because of the difficulty almost inevitably encountered by such persons in proving the elements of malicious prosecution and false imprisonment (1984 Report of NY Law Rev Commn, at 37-79). Under the new statute, a claimant thwarted by the onerous requirements of conventional causes of action from being recompensed for unjust incarceration may file a claim against the State, merely upon a showing that he was innocent of the crime for which he was imprisoned, and that he was not through any other misconduct responsible for his own prosecution (1984 Report of NY Law Rev Commn, at 72-76). In the language of Court of Claims Act § 8-b (1): "The legislature finds and declares that innocent persons who have been wrongly convicted of crimes and