Justice Sylvia Ash
In this breach of contract action, Inner Force argued that New York City’s Department of Education refused to pay for contracted-for programs and services. The city moved for dismissal, arguing the notice of claim was served on the wrong governmental entity, the comptroller’s office, for service on the education department. Inner Force argued the comptroller processed the notice of claim, assigned it a tracking number, and subsequently denied the claim, but did not inform plaintiff the claim needed to be directed to the corporation counsel. As such, Inner Force argued the city should be estopped from asserting the notice of claim defense. The court agreed, finding the comptroller’s actions “lulled plaintiff into sleeping on its rights to its detriment” as it never put plaintiff on notice it was dealing solely on behalf of the city, but that the notice of claim was improper as to any other party. It noted while there was no intent to deliberately mislead plaintiff, the comptroller’s response to the claim, wrongfully or negligently, induced reliance by Inner Force, to its detriment, to believe that its notice of claim was proper and that the proper party was served. Thus, the city was estopped from asserting the notice of claim defense.
