Opinion · New York Court of Appeals
Lanzi v. Brooks
Lanzi v. Brooks, 43 N.Y.2d 778 (New York Court of Appeals 1977)
- Type
- Opinion
- Court
- New York Court of Appeals
- Jurisdiction
- New York
- Date
- 1977-12-15
- Topic
- antitrust
reversing a finding of fraud on reliance grounds because plaintiff did not believe defendant’s misrepresentations | “Fraudulent intent not to perform a promise cannot be inferred merely from the fact of nonperformance.... ” | “[u]nder New York law, any inference drawn from the fact that the expectation did not occur is not sufficient to sustain the plaintiffs burden of showing that the defendant falsely stated his intentions”
Citator
- Cited by
- 73 opinions
OPINION OF THE COURT
Memorandum.
The order of the Appellate Division is affirmed, with costs, for the reasons stated in the memorandum decision of that court, with an additional observation. Plaintiff’s complaint did not allege either a present intent not to carry out the promises of future action, or, in fact, any factual assertions from which this conclusion can be drawn, and thus failed to state a cause of action for fraud based on a misstatement of future *780 intentions (cf. Sabo v Delman, 3 NY2d 155). This failure to allege a necessary element of the cause of action, however, is not to be confused with the requirement of CPLR 3016 (subd [b]) that in an action for fraud, "the circumstances constituting the wrong shall be stated in detail”. This provision requires only that the misconduct complained of be set forth in sufficient detail to clearly inform a defendant with respect to the incidents complained of and is not to be interpreted so strictly as to prevent an otherwise valid cause of action in situations where it may be "impossible to state in detail the circumstances constituting a fraud” (Jered Contr. Corp. v New York City Tr. Auth., 22 NY2d 187, 194).
Chief Judge Breitel and Judges Jasen, Gabrielli, Jones, Wachtler, Fuchsberg and Cooke concur.
Order affirmed, with costs, in a memorandum.