Goldman Copeland Assoc. v. Goodstein Bros. & Co

In Goldman Copeland Assoc. v. Goodstein Bros. & Co. (268 A.D.2d 370 [1st Dept 2000], lv dismissed 95 N.Y.2d 825, 734 N.E.2d 761 [2000], lv dismissed 96 N.Y.2d 796 [2001], rearg denied 96 N.Y.2d 897 [2001]), the First Department, in concluding that the tenant's claim for wage escalation overcharges was time-barred, stated ( at 371): "It is undisputed that the landlord gave the tenant detailed yearly porter wage escalation statements for the years in question, which were paid by the tenant without protest. Since such statements consistently used the same formula in determining the escalation, the tenant's overcharge claim accrued upon its receipt of the first statement almost 12 years before it commenced this action. At that time it had all of the information it needed to contest the manner in which the landlord computed the escalation. The tenant's alternative argument that the yearly increase due under the porter wage escalation clause created a new cause of action each and every year is unpersuasive in the context of a dispute involving a computational methodology that remained constant over the years for which the computation is being challenged."