Our client, a national real estate brokerage firm, was sued by a company that claimed to be entitled to half of the commission earned for a $24 million property sale. The claim was based on an alleged oral agreement for the commission split. On appeal, the appellate court granted our client’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit in its entirety. DSA Realty Servs., LLC v. Marcus & Millichap Real Estate Inv. Servs. of N.Y., Inc., 128 A.D.3d 587 (1st Dep't 2015). Read more at: Marcus & Millichap triumphs over DSA Realty in commission suit
After a two week trial, we obtained a $3.3 million judgment against a non-lawyer and others who helped him create a sham law office in order to swindle money from our client by pretending that he was a lawyer. In addition, after an appeal was filed, the appellate court granted our client’s motion for summary judgment and set aside the non-lawyer’s conveyance of his property to family members, holding that the conveyance was fraudulent and was done in an effort to prevent our client from enforcing his judgment. Akodes v. Pyatetsky, 127 A.D.3d 895 (2d Dep't 2015).
After being fired for cause, an employee sued our client for millions of dollars, claiming to be a 50% owner of the business. His claim was based on his contentions that he was a co-founder of the business and that he was orally promised an ownership interest. The court granted our motion and dismissed all thirteen causes of action in the Complaint, ending the entire case before any discovery was conducted.
Secured non-competition and non-disclosure agreement from departing research and development officer who had emailed copies of former firm’s business plans to new employer and violated Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by hacking into corporate email account of former firm’s CEO.
Secured lump sum buyout of cosmetic surgeon client’s interests in ambulatory surgery center and cosmetic surgery practice by filing shareholder’s derivative action and action for breach of fiduciary duty, diversion of corporate opportunities, and accounting against other surgeon/shareholders in practice group who set up competing cosmetic surgery entities and misappropriated corporate funds.
After our client purchased a partial interest in a successful and lucrative business, the original owner, who remained the manager of the business, refused to pay the purchaser his share of the profits and also refused to grant him access to the business or its books and records. When the original owner refused the purchaser’s demand for a refund of his purchase price, we commenced a lawsuit and filed an order to show cause seeking an injunction. Shortly after the lawsuit was filed, we settled the case and obtained a full refund of our client’s purchase price.
Acted as co-counsel and obtained confidential six-figure payment and exclusive referral agreement for vascular surgeon/vascular lab owner in breach of contract and unfair competition lawsuit against regional hospital which breached agreement to acquire vascular surgery practice and induced employed surgeons of practice to breach their employment contracts by starting competing vascular surgery practice at regional hospital.
When a general contractor sued our client, a building owner, for failing to pay him the complete contract price for constructing a residential apartment building, we made a motion to dismiss the case and to compel arbitration. Our motion was based on an arbitration provision contained in the contract which the owner entered into with a different general contractor, who subsequently assigned his rights under the contract to the plaintiff. The court agreed with our position and ordered the parties to arbitrate the dispute based on its holding that the plaintiff could not argue, on the one hand, that he was entitled to payment as an assignee of the contract, but on the other hand argue that he was not bound by the arbitration provision contained in the same contract. We then persuaded the arbitrators that the contractor’s work was substandard, after which they issued an award which gave the contractor only a small percentage of the amount claimed.
Obtained dismissal by dispositive motion of separate multi-million dollar breach of contract, fraud, misrepresentation and punitive damages lawsuits asserted against manufacturing company, website design firm, healthcare billing firm and their CEOs.
Acted as co-counsel and secured the reversal of the trial court’s order vacating a default judgment entered in favor of the client, a small clothing store, against the landlord, following a partial roof collapse and flooding which destroyed inventory and caused the business to close for an extended period of time. Majestic Clothing, Inc. v. East Coast Storage, LLC, 18 A.D.3d 516 (2d Dept. 2005).
When a condominium sponsor failed to complete the project by the deadline specified in the Purchase Agreement, our client demanded a refund of the full down payment which he gave toward the purchase of multiple units at the condominium. After the sponsor refused, we sued the sponsor for the return of the down payment, and the sponsor filed counterclaims in which it demanded that our client close on the purchase of all of the units, or otherwise forfeit the down payment. In our motion to dismiss the counterclaims, we persuaded the court that the sponsor had violated numerous terms of the Purchase Agreement, and had also failed to comply with multiple regulations governing the development of condominiums. After the court granted our motion and dismissed the sponsor’s counterclaims, the sponsor agreed to refund our client’s down payment in full.
Our clients were sued as personal guarantors for multiple bank loans taken by an entity that they were members of. After we successfully demonstrated that our clients’ signatures were forged on the guarantees, the bank agreed to voluntarily discontinue our clients from the lawsuit.
After accepting a $385,000 investment in a risky joint venture, our client was in the uncomfortable position of having to advise the investor that the venture was a complete failure, and that his entire investment had been lost. The investor sued our client for conspiracy to commit fraud, negligent misrepresentation, and fraudulent concealment, among other claims, based on his contention that he was not made aware of all of the material facts before making his investment, and that false promises and assurances had been made. After the court granted our motion to dismiss these claims, the investor decided to drop the remainder of his claims and voluntarily discontinued the lawsuit.
As part of the sale of a healthcare facility, the seller agreed that within one year of the closing, he would satisfy substantial existing tax obligations. Three years later, the seller still had not satisfied those tax obligations and the purchasers sued for damages. We filed a motion to dismiss the action as premature, based on the fact that the purchasers had not actually paid the taxes and, therefore, could not articulate any actual damages that they suffered. The court agreed with our argument, granted our motion, and dismissed the lawsuit.