Case Information

V.M. PAOLOZZI IMPORTS, INC., Doing Business as DEALMAKER HONDA and Another, et al., Appellants, v JUNIOR STEFANINI, Respondent, et al., Defendant.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Fourth Department, New York

2014

11 NYS3d 489

Hugh A. Gilbert, J.

Appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Jefferson County (Hugh A. Gilbert, J.), entered December 20, 2013. The order granted the motion of defendant Junior Stefanini for summary judgment dismissing plaintiffs' complaint as against him.

It is hereby ordered that the order so appealed from is unanimously affirmed without costs.

Memorandum: We affirm for reasons stated in the decision at Supreme Court. We write only to note that, although the court erred in determining that plaintiffs failed to plead a fraud cause of action with the requisite specificity pursuant to CPLR 3016 (b), the court nevertheless properly dismissed that cause of action against Junior Stefanini (defendant). The fraud cause of action was based on nothing more than speculation and unsubstantiated assertions, and plaintiffs failed to raise an issue of fact to defeat that part of defendant's motion for summary judgment dismissing it against him (see generally Zuckerman v City of New York, 49 NY2d 557, 562 [1980]). Present—Scudder, P.J., Smith, Sconiers, Whalen and DeJoseph, JJ.

SCUDDER, P.J.

SMITH, SCONIERS, WHALEN AND DEJOSEPH, JJ.