CPLR §5601(a) provides that “[a]n appeal may be taken to the court of appeals as of right in an action originating in the supreme court, a county court, a surrogate’s court, the family court, the court of claims or an administrative agency, from an order of the appellate division which finally determines the action, where there is a dissent by at least two justices on a question of law in favor of the party taking such appeal.”
This month, we examine Reis v. Volvo,1 where the jurisdictional predicate for an appeal to the Court of Appeals as of right was two dissents in the Appellate Division on a question of law in favor of the appellant Volvo. Reis implicated the rule that “an appeal properly taken under CPLR 5601(a) brings up for review all issues that the Appellate Division decided adversely to the appellant, even those on which no Appellate Division justice dissented.” Thus, while the Court of Appeals disagreed with the Appellate Division dissent concerning the impropriety of one aspect of the jury instructions, it nevertheless reversed and ordered a new trial on the basis of its further disagreement with the majority concerning another aspect of the charge challenged by Volvo.
