2 No. 98
   Jo-Ann Cantalino,
   Appellant,
   v.
   Jacqueline Danner,
   Respondent.
     _________________________________________________________________

   2001 NY Int. 86

   June 28, 2001

   This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication
   in the New York Reports.

   Anthony J. Genovesi, Jr., for appellant.
   John W. Burns, for respondent.
   City of New York, amicus curiæ.
     _________________________________________________________________

   KAYE, CHIEF JUDGE:

   Is a dismissal in the interest of justice a "favorable termination"
   for purposes of a malicious prosecution action? Under the
   circumstances here, we conclude that it is, since the court's reasons
   for dismissing the criminal charges were not inconsistent with the
   innocence of the accused.

   This case arises out of the bitterly contested divorce of plaintiff
   from her husband. The husband, a Lieutenant in the New York City
   Police Department, was living with defendant -- his girlfriend, who
   was also a police officer. While the divorce action was pending in
   Kings County Supreme Court, the husband purported to obtain a divorce
   in the Dominican Republic and marry defendant. He then repeatedly
   failed to comply with orders entered in the Kings County divorce
   proceeding.

   Plaintiff moved to have her husband held in contempt, and Supreme
   Court ordered that he be personally served. One service attempt was
   unsuccessful when defendant allegedly grabbed the papers from the
   process server. On another occasion, the officers at the husband's
   precinct apparently thwarted a service attempt by informing the
   process server that he was not at work and sending the process server
   to a false location. On yet a third occasion, the Police Department
   allegedly refused to provide a police escort so that plaintiff could
   serve her husband at his home in Staten Island.