30 A.D.2d 573 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1968
Judgment of the Supreme Court, Westchester County, entered May 15, 1967, modified, on the law and the facts, by (1) striking therefrom the award to plaintiff of $4,500 plus interest, (2) reducing the award of $1,116.05 for costs and disbursements to $663.05 and (3) reducing the total award to plaintiff from $8,488.23 to $1,842. As so modified, judgment affirmed, without costs. In our opinion, the proof does not support a finding of the criminality requisite to a recovery of treble damages for the unlawful and willful destruction of property under section 1433 of the Penal Law. (See Polychrome Corp. v. Lithotech Corp., 4 A D 2d 968; Wass v. Stephens, 128 N. Y. 123; Teamans v. Nichols, 81 N. Y. S. 500; People v. Kane, 131 N. Y. 111.) The proof “more nearly [shows] wrongdoing motivated by the alleged self-interest ” of defendant to better his own fortune “ rather than the ‘ disinterested malevolence’ * * * found in the article expressly dealing with ‘malicious