3 New York Civil Practice: CPLR P 505.00

Summary

The Advisory Committee’s first report stated that CPLR 505 was intended to provide “a new and uniform rule to govern actions by or against public authorities.”1 The Committee appended to this report a study entitled, “Venue of Actions and Proceedings by or Against Public Authorities in New York.”2 That study enumerated a number of special venue provisions applicable to public authorities pursuant to various provisions of the Public Authorities Law. Thus, it seems reasonable to conclude that the term public authorities, as used in CPLR 505, was meant to include all authorities established pursuant to that law.

A public authority also includes a municipal housing authority created by the Public Housing Law. Prior to 1957, these housing authorities had been included in the Public Authorities Law. When the provisions relating to housing authorities were repealed and reenacted as part of the Public Housing Law, the ...