§ 70. Vexatious suits. If a person vexatiously or maliciously, in the\nname of another but without the latter's consent, or in the name of an\nunknown person, commences or continues, or causes to be commenced or\ncontinued, an action or special proceeding, in a court, of record or not\nof record, or a special proceeding before a judge or a justice of the\npeace; or takes, or causes to be taken, any proceeding, in the course of\nan action or special proceeding in such a court, or before such an\nofficer, either before or after judgment or other final determination;\nan action to recover damages therefor may be maintained against him by\nthe adverse party to the action or special proceeding; and a like action\nmay be maintained by the person, if any, whose name was thus used. He is\nalso guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by imprisonment not exceeding\nsix months.\n
N.Y. Civ. Rights Law § 70
Vexatious suits
Applied in 7 court decisions — leading case Behunin v. Superior Court of Los Angeles County (2017)
Most recently applied in Christopher Beres v. RELX, Inc., d/b/a LexisNexis USA, and Portfolio Media, Inc. (May 2025)
2014-09-22
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: NYS Open Legislation (New York State Senate). Reproduced from public-domain New York statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.