| 87 Chambers, LLC v 77 Reade, LLC |
| 2014 NY Slip Op 01123 [114 AD3d 525] |
| February 18, 2014 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| 87 Chambers, LLC, et al., Appellants, et al., InterveningPlaintiff, v 77 Reade, LLC, et al., Respondents, et al., Defendants. (And OtherThird-Party Actions.) Appellant. |
—[*1] Brown Gavalas & Fromm LLP, New York (David H. Fromm of counsel), forrespondents.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Joan M. Kenney, J.), entered October 2,2012, which denied appellants' motion for leave to amend their complaint to add claimsof gross negligence and punitive damages, unanimously reversed, on the law, with costs,and the motion granted.
Appellants made the requisite evidentiary showing in support of their proposed newclaims for gross negligence (see Non-Linear Trading Co. v Braddis Assoc., 243AD2d 107, 116 [1st Dept 1998]). Among other things, the record contains evidence that,on April 9, 2009, three weeks before appellants' building partially collapsed, theDepartment of Buildings (DOB) issued defendant 77 Reade, LLC, a violation, warningthat "drilling operations" being performed as part of a construction project on 77 Reade'sproperty were causing "cracking and sagging" of the northwest corner of appellants'building, situated on an adjacent lot. DOB directed respondents to "stop all work atNorth side of lot," the side closest to appellants' building, but there is record evidencethat respondents continued such work, leading to the collapse of appellants' building.
Appellants' motion was timely filed and respondents have not shown that they wouldbe prejudiced by granting appellants' leave to assert the new claims. Among other things,[*2]appellants are not prejudiced by the mere fact ofexposure to potentially greater liability in the form of punitive damages (see Loomisv Civetta Corinno Constr. Corp., 54 NY2d 18, 23 [1981]; Letterman vReddington, 278 AD2d 868 [4th Dept 2000]). Concur—Sweeny, J.P.,Renwick, Moskowitz, Richter and Gische, JJ.