A buyer signed a contract and paid a downpayment as part of the purchase of real property. The buyer did not show at a time of the essence closing, leading the seller to declare its default and intention to retain the downpayment as damages. Some eight months later, the buyer…
Many contracts are being pulled out for review to ascertain how COVID-19 affects them. I have received some preliminary inquiries and briefly address the topic here. Contractual force majeure, or “acts of Gd,” provisions found in a contract are a specific variation of a party’s inability to perform due to…
Owner of a property entered into a contract for its sale. At the time of the contract, Owner, a corporation, was dissolved by proclamation. The contract had a one-year closing date, time being of the essence, but if there was no closing, Buyer’s downpayment would be returned upon its termination…
A property owner challenged a lien because the contractor did not apportion the work over two properties, thus exaggerating the lien amount and subjecting it to cancellation. The First Department refused to cancel the lien, finding that the Lien Law did not require that multiple liens be filed for work…
Specifically in connection with real estate contracts, where issues come up during the due diligence period, parties often demand relief of their own imagination, which courts refuse to enforce. In a case decided in the Commercial Division of Kings County, involving a buyer’s demand not found in the contract, the…
In refusing to dismiss a case where anticipatory repudiation of an employment agreement was claimed, the court held that for the purposes of a pre-answer motion to dismiss, plaintiff’s claim that he sent three emails to defendant about unpaid commissions which were ignored sufficed to properly allege that claim—“the Defendants’…
Landlord sued the guarantor of a lease when the tenant failed to pay. The guarantor argued that it should not be liable for the full amount of the rent as called for in the lease because the landlord and tenant had negotiated a temporary discount without informing or consulting the…
Plaintiff and defendant entered into a contract for architectural services. Their contract had a rider that provided for additional fees and contained an arbitration provision. In response to plaintiff’s lawsuit seeking fees, defendant moved to dismiss based on the arbitration provision in the rider. Plaintiff claimed that the rider was…
In another demonstration of New York’s inclination not to enforce non-compete agreements, two weeks ago, the Second Department refused to enforce the non-compete agreement of a professional, a class of people for whom a such an agreement has a better shot of enforcement than in most cases generally. Plaintiff is…
As promised, we write about another recent trade-secret case where the court refused to enforce an employer’s claims that its information was secret. After plaintiff was indicted for a host of crimes, some of its employees left to form a competing business, in violation of their non-compete and confidentiality agreements.…