Matter of D’Amato v Lorintz, 2019 NY Slip Op 00592 [168 AD3d 1048]

January 30, 2019

Appellate Division, Second Department

[*1]

In the Matter of Katuria D’Amato, Petitioner,

v

Joseph H. Lorintz, a Justice of the Supreme Court, Nassau County, Respondent.

Law Offices of Thomas F. Liotti, LLC, Garden City, NY, for petitioner.

Letitia James, Attorney General, New York, NY (Michael A. Berg of counsel), for respondent.

Proceeding pursuant to CPLR article 78 in the nature of mandamus, inter alia, to compel the respondent, Joseph H. Lorintz, a Justice of the Supreme Court, Nassau County, to recuse himself from presiding over an action entitled Anonymous-1 v Anonymous-2 , pending in that court under index No. 202477/17.

Adjudged that the petition is denied and the proceeding is dismissed on the merits, without costs or disbursements.

The extraordinary remedy of mandamus will lie only to compel the performance of a ministerial act, and only where there exists a clear legal right to the relief sought ( see Matter of Legal Aid Socy. of Sullivan County v Scheinman , 53 NY2d 12, 16 [1981]). Assuming, without deciding, that this proceeding was appropriately commenced by counsel for the petitioner, the petitioner failed to demonstrate a clear legal right to the relief sought. Scheinkman, P.J., Hinds-Radix, Connolly and Christopher, JJ., concur..