While it is very well settled law, one might even say indelibly engraved, in all four appellate departments that “A court’s power to dismiss a complaint, sua sponte, is to be used sparingly and only when extraordinary circumstances exist to warrant dismissal,” HSBC Bank USA, N.A. v. Taher, 104 A.D.3d 815, 817 [2d Dept 2013], trial courts continue to disregard this stentorian directive with no end in sight. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. St. Louis, 2024 NY Slip Op 02948 [2d Dept 2024] calls out these repeating transgressors.

In a honed, didactic decision by Justice Mark C. Dillon, the Second Department noted that the appeal presented no “novel legal question”; rather, it “presented us with an opportunity to emphasize to trial courts the due process importance of not directing the dismissal of a complaint absent notice and an opportunity to be heard, which has been occurring with unwarrantable frequency.” The court stressed that “[d]espite the multiple dozens of Appellate Division decisions that have repeatedly and collectively advised [trial courts] against such practice,” “our trial-level colleagues” continue to do so “without any brake applied”: the terms “sparingly” and “extraordinary circumstances” “should not be taken lightly” (emphasis provided).