M.T. v Yeshiva Univ.

Holding The court held that the Child Victims Act does not violate the Due Process Clause or the Supremacy Clause because final federal judgments dismissing time-barred claims do not create a constitutionally protected vested property right. Consequently, the state legislature may revive time-barred claims without abrogating any vested rights held by the defendants.

The court’s words

the doctrine of vested rights is essentially a check on legislative power to alter certain private rights recognized in final court judgments

251 AD3d 150, at the official text

a final money judgment creates a 'vested right' and hence a constitutionally protected property interest

251 AD3d 150, at the official text

the final federal judgments did not vest defendants with a constitutionally protected property right

251 AD3d 150, at the official text

a state legislature, consistently with the Fourteenth Amendment, may repeal or extend a statute of limitations, even after right of action is barred thereby

251 AD3d 150, at the official text