FAISON v. INSTITUTION FOR COMMUNITY LIVING INC (2019)

ORDERED that the judgment is affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff commenced this action against her landlord, a not-for-profit organization, to recover $25,000 for breach of contract. After a nonjury trial, the Civil Court awarded plaintiff the principal sum of $2,500. Plaintiff appeals on the ground of inadequacy.

“The essential elements of a breach of contract cause of action are the existence of a contract, the plaintiff's performance under the contract, the defendant's breach of that contract, and resulting damages” (Liberty Equity Restoration Corp. v. Maeng-Soon Yun, 160 AD3d 623, 626 [2018] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted] ). Here, even assuming that the Civil Court found all of plaintiff's testimony to be credible, the record contains no basis to increase the award to plaintiff, as plaintiff failed to properly establish her claim for damages.

We note that while plaintiff alleged at trial that defendant had made slanderous statements about her, plaintiff's complaint states only a single cause of action, for breach of contract, and plaintiff never set forth the particular words complained of (see generally CPLR 3016 [a]). We further note that this court does not consider any evidence which is dehors the record (see Chimarios v. Duhl, 152 AD2d 508 [1989]).

In light of the fact that defendant did not cross-appeal, the judgment is affirmed.

ALIOTTA, J.P., PESCE and SIEGAL, JJ., concur.