On February 19, 2025, the Second Department issued a decision in Kliger-Weiss Infosystems, Inc. v. Ruskin Moscou Faltischek, P.C., 2025 NY Slip Op. 00956, holding that absent new facts or a change in the law, a prior appellate decision is the law of the case, barring the relitigation of an issue, explaining:
[T]he defendant’s contention that the cause of action alleging legal malpractice was time-barred was itself barred by the law of the case doctrine. The doctrine of the law of the case is a rule of practice, an articulation of sound policy that, when an issue is once judicially determined, that should be the end of the matter as far as Judges and courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction are concerned. An appellate court’s resolution of an issue on a prior appeal constitutes the law of the case and is binding on the Supreme Court, as well as on the appellate court and operates to foreclose re-examination of the question absent a showing of subsequent evidence or change of law. Here, the defendant’s statute of limitations argument was raised and decided against it on the prior appeal in this action. The defendant did not submit any new evidence in support of its motion for summary judgment or argue that there had been a change in the law, and its argument was therefore barred by the law of the case doctrine.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).