New York Court of Appeals

The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that a patient's family can continue their privacy lawsuit because the patient's death was filmed without their permission and aired on medical show, ProPublica's Charles Ornstein reports. The court greenlighted the plaintiffs' claim that doctor-patient confidentiality was breached, but the court rejected the plaintiffs' intentional infliction of emotional distress claim.

“'We conclude that defendants’ conduct here, while offensive, was not so atrocious and utterly intolerable as to support a cause of action'” for emotional distress, the court opined.

The widow of Mark Chanko recognized her husband moaning in pain on an episode of "NY Med." He was treated at New York Presbyterian Hospital after being struck by a vehicle while crossing the street.

The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that minimum-wage protections apply to public assistance receipients.

New York state is entitled to seize lottery winnings from people who have received public assistance. Courthouse News' Rose Bouboushian reports that the court reasoned that a Vietnam veteran, who received public assistance, was entitled to keep his $10,000 lottery winnings. Taking those benefits would have meant the veteran earned less than minimum wage while he was enrolled in a work experience program. By participating in the program, he was entitled to receive cash assistance and food stamps.

Law firms engaged in debt collection can be regulated by New York City, the New York Court of Appeals has ruled. Christy Young Berger, blogging on Accounts Receivable Management's blog, notes that two law firms, Eric M. Berman and Lacy Katzen, argued New York's law encroached on the state's exclusive authority to regulate the legal profession. The New York Court of Appeals, in answering a question posed to it by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, found that New York's law doesn't encroach on the state's authority to regulate lawyers.

The New York Court of Appeals has ruled that South Brooklyn Legal Services is not entitled to recover attorney fees from the Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance under the New York Equal Access to Justice Act when it got a client's monthly shelter allowance restored to a higher amount, the New York Law Journal's Joel Stashenko reports.

The Equal Access to Justice Act "was intended to employ the 'catalyst' theory, under which litigants are to be rewarded with payment of attorney fees if their cases were the catalyst behind change in policy or correction of the complained-about action," Stashenko writes. The appellate court didn't reach the issue of whether the catalyst theory applies to the Equal Access to Justice Act, so one advocate said the theory does apply in the First Department because the Appellate Division, First Department, ruled in favor of the theory.

New Yorkers will vote on a ballot measure that would increase the age at which appellate judges have to retire to age 80. The New York Times reports that Governor Andrew Cuomo has been quietly opposing Proposition 6. One reason may be that if the ballot meaure passes it would "allow two Republican judges to serve longer terms, limiting his ability to put a lasting liberal stamp on the Court of Appeals," The Times reports.

Raising the retirement ages of judges isn't just a New York issue. Legislation in Pennsylvania has advanced that would increase the retirement age for judges from age 70 to age 75. The legislation has to pass the Pennsylvania General Assembly another year before it can go to voters to approve it in 2015.