The following excerpt is from Warren v. City of Poughkeepsie, 115 N.Y.S.3d 619, 66 Misc.3d 538 (N.Y. City Ct. 2019):
Defendant argues that the witnesses and documents are no longer available to them to defend the instant claim, and that plaintiff's filing twenty-five (25) years after the cause of action arose, greatly prejudices its ability to defend the claim. Defendant relies, in part, upon Order of R. Telegraphers v. Railway Express Agency, Inc. , 321 U.S. 342, 64 S.Ct. 582, 88 L.Ed. 788 (1944), which held that the statute of limitations, "like the equitable doctrine of laches, are designed to promote justice by preventing surprises through the revival of claims that have been allowed to slumber until evidence has been lost, memories have faded, and witnesses have disappeared. The theory is that even if one has a just claim it is unjust not to put the adversary on notice to defend within the period of limitation and that the right to be free of stale claims in time comes to prevail over the right to prosecute them." Id. at 348, 64 S.Ct. 582.
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