TOURO COLLEGE plf-ap, v. NOVUS UNIVERSITY CORPORATION, ET AL., def-res

2869. TOURO COLLEGE plf-ap, v. NOVUS UNIVERSITY CORPORATION, ET AL., def-res — Michael Newman, New York, for ap — Furgang & Adwar, LLP, New York (Armando Llorens of counsel), for res — Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Nancy M. Bannon, J.), entered September 22, 2015, which granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint seeking declaratory relief pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(2) and (7), unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiffs Touro College and Touro College Jacob D. Fuchsberg Law Center (Touro) seek a declaratory judgment that defendants Novus University Corporation, Novus Law School and Novus University Internet Publishing Group, Inc. (Novus) are “diploma mills” as defined in the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008, 20 USC §1003, or in a standard dictionary. Touro, an institute of higher education, accredited by the American Bar Association (ABA), alleges that it and similarly-situated institutions have been harmed by Novus in that individuals who have received degrees from Novus, an online, non-ABA accredited law school, have applied to Masters of Law programs at law schools, including Touro, while falsely representing that Novus was a foreign institution. Touro maintains that there is a justiciable controversy between Touro and Novus warranting declaratory relief (CPLR 3001), since Touro was forced to defend against “meritless” litigation instituted by a Novus graduate who was denied a Touro LLM, after he was admitted to the program based on such a misrepresentation (Matter of Salvador v. Touro Coll., 139 AD3d 1, 5 [1st Dept 2016]).