It is clear that New York courts, as a general rule, will not consider lawsuits filed by an aggrieved Plaintive protesting some administrative determination unless the Plaintiff has exhausted his or her or its administrative remedies.
The major exception to this rule: a party's effort to exhaust an available administrative remedy would constitute "an exercise in futility". Typically, New York courts apply this exception when it is deemed that the administrative decision is a foregone conclusion.
There is a coda to this exception as the Appellate Division indicated in deciding the instant CPLR Article 78 action.
The Appellate Division rejected the New York City Department of Records and Information Services' [Records] argument that the Petitioner had failed to exhaust its administrative remedies, noting that Petitioner "... filed a timely administrative appeal from [Record's] initial denial of [Petitioner's] FOIL request" and Records had denied that appeal.
The court then opined "Petitioner was not required to bring a second administrative appeal challenging [Record's] determination of [Petitioner's] first administrative appeal."
Click HERE to access the Appellate Division's decision posted on the Internet.