Lead Opinion
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Helen E. Freedman, J.), entered on or about December 13, 2006, which granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint, reversed, on the law, without costs, the motion denied and the complaint reinstated.
Inasmuch as there is no indication that plaintiff had reason to know, or should have known, that defendants would refuse to pay the contract price, its cause of action for breach of contract
Dissenting Opinion
in a memorandum as follows: Supreme Court correctly determined that plaintiffs action is time-barred. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent.
On April 6, 1999, the parties entered into a contract pursuant to which plaintiff agreed to diversify cable routes for defendant. Under the contract, plaintiff estimated that the cost of the work would be $100,000, and defendant was to pay that amount within 60 days of the date of the contract. The contract contemplated that the work might be completed either over or under the estimate; plaintiff was to bill defendant for any additional cost over the $100,000 estimate and, if the work cost less than the estimate, refund to defendant any overpayment. While the $100,000 payment was not made by defendant within the 60-day period, the work began in July 1999 and was completed in April 2000. By an invoice dated October 10, 2000, plaintiff billed defendant $109,800 for the work and demanded payment by November 11, 2000. Defendant never paid the invoice.
On June 21, 2006, plaintiff commenced this action to recover the $109,800. In lieu of answering, defendant moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CELE 3211 (a) (5), claiming that the action was time-barred. Supreme Court granted the motion and dismissed the complaint, and this appeal ensued.
“In contract cases, the cause of action accrues and the Statute of Limitations begins to run from the time of the breach” (John J. Kassner & Co. v City of New York, 46 NY2d 544, 550 [1979]; see Ely-Cruikshank Co. v Bank of Montreal, 81 NY2d 399 [1993]). Where a cause of action is asserted to recover a sum of money owed pursuant to a contract, the cause of action
Here, there was no condition precedent to final payment under the contract. Thus, plaintiff’s cause of action accrued when the work it was retained to perform was completed. According to plaintiff, the work was completed in April 2000. Since the action was not commenced until June 2006, after the six-year statute of limitations had expired {see CPLR 213 [2]), it is time-barred.
The majority’s assertion that the cause of action accrued on November 10, 2000, the date by which plaintiff, in its October 10, 2000 invoice, demanded payment, is erroneous. As discussed above, absent a condition precedent to final payment, a cause of action for breach of contract accrues “on completion of the actual physical work” (Phillips Constr. Co., 61 NY2d at 951). John J. Kassner & Co. {supra) and Matter of Bombardier Transp. (Holdings) USA, Inc. v Telephonies Corp. (14 AD3d 358 [2005]), cited by the majority, both involved contracts that imposed conditions precedent to payment and the plaintiffs’ causes of action for breach of contract did not accrue until those conditions were fulfilled. Moreover, in concluding that plaintiffs
Accordingly, I would affirm the order.
I agree with the majority that plaintiffs cause of action did not accrue on the date the parties entered into the contract. While the contract called for payment by defendant of the $100,000 estimate within 60 days of the date of the contract, plaintiff waived compliance with that provision. In light of this waiver, defendant could not have breached that provision of the contract.
