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Melville, NY January 3, 2025 – On January 3, 2025, Freiberger Haber LLP partner Jonathan H. Freiberger was interviewed by Pat Kiernan, on NY1’s Mornings on 1 news broadcast. Mr. Kiernan and Jonathan discussed preliminary injunctions, temporary restraining orders, both in general and as they relate to the action pending in the New Jersey Federal District Court commenced by The State of New Jersey in an effort to stop the implementation of New York’s Central Business District T

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber The justifiable reliance element has been described as a “fundamental precept” and a “venerable rule”. The requirement is one of the five elements of a fraud cause of action: (1) a misrepresentation or a material omission of fact; (2) which was false and known to be false by the defendant(s); (3) made for the purpose of inducing another person to rely upon it; (4) justifiable reliance of the other party on the misrepresentation or material omission; an

By: Jonathan H. Freiberger Many times, remedies for the breach of a contract other than monetary damages are necessary to make a plaintiff whole. One such remedy is specific performance. The remedy of specific performance “will not be ordered where money damages would be adequate to protect the expectation interests of the injured party.” Sokoloff v. Harriman Estates Development Corp. , 96 N.Y.2d 409, 415 (2001) (citations and internal quotation marks omitted). Specific perf

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In International Business Machs. Corp. v. GlobalFoundries U.S. Inc. , 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 06425 (1st Dept. Dec. 19, 2024) ( here ), the Appellate Division, First Department was asked to consider whether a contractual jury waiver provision applied to a claim for fraudulent inducement where the plaintiff did not seek to void or rescind the subject contracts if it prevailed on its fraudulent inducement claim, but instead attempted to enforce the contracts and

By: Jonathan H. Freiberger This BLOG has previously addressed issues related to proper licensure for contractors and the problems that arise for them if they perform work without a license. See, e.g. , < here =">here</a>"> , < here =">here</a>"> , < here =">here</a>"> and < here =">here</a>"> . As previously noted in prior articles, contractors are frequently required by municipalities to be licensed. Unlicensed home improvement contractors are precluded from collecting paym

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber Two weeks ago, this Blog wrote about an enforcement action involving an investment adviser's former co-chief investment officer who had been charged with running a more than $600 million cherry-picking scheme ( here ). Today, this Blog examines another enforcement action involving a former investment adviser representative, charged with engaging in a fraudulent trade allocation scheme – i.e. , cherry-picking scheme – wherein he benefitted himself in the

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber In almost every litigation, the question that clients most often ask is whether they can get back their attorney’s fees. As we have explained in past articles ( e.g. , here , here , and here ), attorney’s fees are not generally recoverable in litigation under the “American Rule”. The American Rule “was originally derived from federal legislation passed in 1853 which recognized that ‘losing litigants were being unfairly saddled with exorbitant fees.’” Un

By: Jonathan H. Freiberger Today’s BLOG article is about Thorobird Grand LLC v. M. Melnick & Co. , a case decided by the Appellate Division, First Department, on December 12, 2024, and which involves mechanic’s liens. The Facts of Thorobird Plaintiff, as owner, hired defendant M. Melnick & Co., as contractor, on several projects. Pursuant to the parties’ agreement, contractor was required to procure performance and payment bonds from a surety; in this case, defendant Federa

By:  Jeffrey M. Haber In today’s article, we revisit some familiar principles concerning claims of fraudulent inducement. We will also examine the impact of a contractual exculpatory clause on the viability of a fraud claim, as well as the impact of contractual provision that negates the basis for a fraud claim. Our examination of these issues and principles is centered on MREF REIT Lender 2 LLC v. FPG Maiden Holdings LLC , 2024 N.Y. Slip Op. 06161 (1st Dept. Dec. 10, 2024) (