In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for violation of Labor Law § 740, the plaintiff appeals, as limited by his brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Colabella, J.), entered October 8, 2002, as granted those branches of the defendants’ motion which were to dismiss the first, second, third, and fifth causes of action set forth in the amended complaint insofar as asserted against the defendants Ralph Farella, Barry N. Dansky, and John Farella, and the
Ordered that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed and cross-appealed from, without costs or disbursements.
Contrary to the plaintiffs contention, the Supreme Court did not violate the doctrine of law of the case by dismissing the second, third, and fifth causes of action in the amended complaint, and the first cause of action in the amended complaint insofar as asserted against the individual defendants. The doctrine of law of the case “applies only to legal determinations that were necessarily resolved on the merits in [a] prior decision” (Baldasano v Bank of N.Y.,
Contrary to the contention of the defendant Medi-Ray, Inc., the Supreme Court properly denied that branch of the defendants’ motion which sought to dismiss the first cause of action to recover damages for violation of Labor Law § 740 insofar as asserted against it. In order to sustain a cause of action predicated upon Labor Law § 740, known as the “whistleblowers’ statute,” a plaintiff must plead and prove that his or her employer engaged in an activity, policy, or practice that constituted an actual violation of law, rule, or regulation (see Bordell v General Elec. Co.,