GIBBONS III v. GRONDAHL (2018)

Order, Supreme Court, Bronx County (Wilma Guzman, J.), entered on or about November 6, 2017, which granted defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint as barred by the statute of limitations, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The motion court correctly dismissed the complaint, since the claim accrued in 1984, and was discovered at the latest in 2002.  Plaintiffs' reliance on the “continuing wrong” doctrine is misplaced, as that doctrine “may only be predicated on continuing unlawful acts and not on the continuing effects of earlier unlawful conduct.  The distinction is between a single wrong that has continuing effects and a series of independent, distinct wrongs” (Henry v. Bank of Am., 147 A.D.3d 599, 601, 48 N.Y.S.3d 67 [1st Dept. 2017] [internal quotation marks omitted] ).  Here, there is no evidence of any alleged fraudulent acts on the part of defendants after the tax map discrepancy was discovered in 2002 (compare Harvey v. Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 34 A.D.3d 364, 827 N.Y.S.2d 6 [1st Dept. 2006] ).