CPLR R. 2104 Stipulations
Dental Health Assoc. v Zangeneh, 2011 NY Slip Op 00484 (App. Div., 2nd 2011)
Zangeneh correctly argues that the parties' stipulation entered into on May 6, 2002, bars this belated claim for disgorgement. "By stipulation, the parties may shape the facts to be determined at trial and thus circumscribe the relevant issues for the court to the exclusion of disputed matters that otherwise would be available to the parties" (Deitsch Textiles v New York Prop. Ins. Underwriting Assn., 62 NY2d 999, 1002; see Roberts v Worth Constr., Inc., 21 AD3d 1074; Nishman v De Marco, 76 AD2d 360). Here, the parties agreed that the accounting issues, as raised in a motion made by the plaintiffs in March 2002, inter alia, to adopt the accounting report, would be the only unresolved issues following the trial of the tort and contract claims. The claim for disgorgement was not raised in the plaintiffs' March 2002 motion. Accordingly, the plaintiffs' belated request for disgorgement should have been denied.
Some stipulations, while seemingly inconsequential, are anything but.
bruteforcelawyer.com 