Our regular readers will remember the plight of Tommy, a chimpanzee on whose behalf the Nonhuman Rights Project has filed successive petitions for habeas corpus relief. This past quarter, it was the First Department's turn to decide whether Tommy was a “person” protected by the writ of habeas corpus. Below, we report on Tommy's fate (not to monkey around with the Appellate Division, First Department) and some of the other noteworthy decisions from the second quarter of this year.

First Department

Taxes. In Sprint Communications Co., L.P. v. City of New York Department of Finance, 2017 N.Y. Slip Op. 05194 (1st Dep't June 27, 2017), the First Department was called upon to decide whether a telephone company is a utility for tax purposes. Under the New York City Administrative Code, a “utility”—defined as “[e]very person subject to the supervision of the department of public service”—is subject to a Utility Tax but not the Unincorporated Business Income Tax (UBT). N.Y.C. Admin. Code §§11-1101(6), 11-502[a]. In contrast, a “vendor of utility services,” not under such supervision, is subject to both taxes.

Sprint sought a ruling that it was exempt from the UBT on the grounds that it is supervised by the Department of Public Service's Public Service Commission. The Department of Finance, however, maintained that Sprint is subject to only “light regulation,” not “supervision,” and therefore does not meet the definition of a utility. On cross motions for summary judgment, Supreme Court sided with the Department of Finance.