Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York March 1, 2011 (Morrison v. Hynes)

The extraordinary remedy of a writ of mandamus is available in limited circumstances only to compel the performance of a purely ministerial act which does not involve the exercise of official discretion or judgment, and only when a clear legal right to the relief sought has been demonstrated (see Klostermann v Cuomo, 61 NY2d 525, 537 [1984]; Matter of Salisbury v Lapidez, 277 AD2d 319 [2000];