For those of you familiar with performing school district work in New York State, you are probably already aware that in order to preserve your right to commence a lawsuit against such an entity, you must first submit a verified Notice of Claim within three months after the accrual of your claim. What you probably do not know is how strictly the courts have interpreted and applied this Notice of Claim requirement.
New York State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, has held that Educational Law � 3813 requires the filing of a new Notice of Claim every three months in order to challenge a New York City Department of Education’s alleged on-going misapplication of a contractual payment formula for a transportation contractor. The Court of Appeals made this decision despite the fact that the plaintiff contractor had already properly filed a lawsuit seeking damages for the DOE’s previous misapplication of the very same payment formula. Unquestionably, the DOE had actual knowledge of the dispute.