In Mezinev v Donald Smith & Co., a longtime employee claimed he was denied equity and later fired because of his custody dispute, caregiving responsibilities, and Bulgarian national origin. The First Department reinstated his familial status and caregiver discrimination claims, but left the national origin claims dismissed, finding enough evidence that family-related concerns may have influenced the employer’s decisions while the national origin proof was too weak. The decision matters because it shows New York courts will let family- and caregiver-bias claims go to trial when workplace comments and internal records suggest those issues played a role in employment decisions.

The First Department reinstated a jury’s guilty verdicts for attempted child sex trafficking and attempted promoting prostitution against a defendant who kept contacting a 16-year-old after police removed her from his prostitution operation. The court said his messages urging her to return, along with screenshots showing customer demand, were enough to show he was trying to restart the same exploitation scheme and had come close enough to completing the crimes.

In this renovation accident case, a worker who fell from an unsecured A-frame ladder won summary judgment on liability because the ladder shifted for no apparent reason. The First Department also threw out the contractor’s indemnity claims against the owner and manager, but let the owner and manager’s own contract-based claims remain unresolved because the agreement was unclear. The decision matters because it reinforces that unexplained ladder movement can establish liability, while indemnity claims depend on clear contract language.