All Posts

By Jonathan H. Freiberger As explained in prior Blog articles, a court will grant a motion for summary judgment if, upon all the papers and evidence submitted, the cause of action or defense is established sufficiently to warrant directing judgment in favor of the moving party as a matter of law. CPLR § 3212 (b); Gilbert Frank Corp. v. Federal Ins. Co. , 70 N.Y.2d 966, 967 (1988); Zuckerman v. City of New York , 49 N.Y.2d 557, 562 (1980). The function of the court when presen

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In today’s article, we address the question: When is an attorney authorized to act on behalf of a party? As one would expect, when the client says so, a lesson learned by the parties in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP v. Koukis , 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 01863 (1st Dept. Apr. 11, 2023) ( here ). The primary issue in Gibson Dunn was whether the default judgment entered against defendant George Koukis in July 2019 should be vacated, and the complaint dismissed as ag

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In Norman Realty & Constr. Corp. v. 151 E. 170th Lender LLC , 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 01843 (1st Dept. April 6, 2023) ( here ), the Appellate Division, First Department addressed the affirmative defense of contract unconscionability, a topic that this Blog has not addressed in quite some time (here). 1 It also addressed plaintiff’s claims for breach of contract and fraudulent inducement.  As discussed below, Norman Realty involved an action for unconscionabi

By Jonathan H. Freiberger This Blog has previously discussed informal appearances in an article aptly titled: “ Informal Appearances ,” from which the introductory information related to informal appearances is taken. Informal Appearances It makes sense that a “plaintiff appears in an action merely by bringing it.”  Deutsche Bank Nat. Trust Co. v. Hall , 185 N.Y.S.3d 1006, 1007 (2 nd Dep’t 2020) (citation and internal quotation marks omitted).  Once served with process, a de

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In today’s article, we examine South Shore D’Lites LLC v. First Class Prods. Grp., LLC , 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 01769 (1st Dept. Apr. 4, 2023) ( here ), a case involving the special facts doctrine in the context of a fraud claim, in particular, the justifiable reliance element of a fraud claim.  South Shore D’Lites concerned licenses to sell ice cream. The licenses were sold to plaintiffs, South Shore D’Lites, LLC, D’Lites of West Caldwell, LLC, and HGB D’Li

Market analysts study publicly traded companies and make recommendations on the securities of those companies. 1 Most analysts specialize in a particular industry or sector of the economy. 2 As noted by the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC” or “Commission”), analysts exert considerable influence on a company. “Analysts’ recommendations or reports can influence the price of a company’s stock—especially when the recommendations are widely disseminated through televisi

By Jonathan H. Freiberger While this Blog has addressed numerous issues relating to residential mortgage foreclosure, it has never touched upon the requirement in RPAPL 1351 (1) that a judgment of foreclosure and sale “shall direct that the mortgaged premises, or so much thereof as may be sufficient to discharge the mortgage debt, the expenses of the sale and the costs of the action, and which may be sold separately without material injury to the parties interested, be sold b

By: Jeffrey M. Haber In NW Media Holdings Corp. v. IBT Media Inc. , 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 30875(U) (Sup. Ct., N.Y. County Mar. 22, 2023) ( here ), Justice Melissa A. Crane addressed the question whether the destruction of millions of pages of data on a Google Workspace (“Workspace”) states a claim for trespass to chattels or conversion. As discussed below, Justice Crane concluded that the allegations concerning the destruction of such data sufficed to state a claim for conversio

By: Jeffrey M. Haber As we have noted previously, the financial exploitation of seniors is a significant problem ( e.g. ,  here ,  here ,  here ,  here , and  here ).  As the incidence of financial exploitation and abuse increases, so do the costs to its victims. An oft-cited study by the MetLife Mature Market Institute, the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, and the Center for Gerontology at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, titled “Brok