A Fox Rothschild real estate litigation team, led by Joshua Kopelowitz and Bansari Sheth, secured a judgment of more than $900,000, plus attorneys’ fees, in a complex landlord-tenant dispute involving unpaid rent and other damages.
The case, which was filed in September 2020 in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, New York County, stemmed from a dispute over whether a landlord had the right under Covid-era laws to recover unpaid rent from an office tenant and its guarantor.
Prior to Fox’s involvement, the court granted summary judgment in favor of the tenant and its guarantor and dismissed the landlord’s case with prejudice. The landlord did not timely perfect its appeal.
The Fox team later joined the case, successfully vacated the automatic dismissal of the landlord’s appeal and ultimately perfected the appeal on behalf of the landlord. The Appellate Division unanimously overturned the lower court’s decision, awarded the landlord summary judgment in its favor and remanded the case for a hearing to assess the landlord’s damages.
At the conclusion of discovery, Fox moved for summary judgment on the total amount of the landlord’s damages. The defendants didn’t dispute they were liable for $669,778.80 in arrearages, but argued they were not responsible for an additional $243,523.13 in mitigation expenses. The court, however, found the Fox team hadproperly authenticated the various third-party contracts, created sufficient foundation for the admission of the third-party invoices, and ultimately awarded the landlord the full amount of its damages, plus the landlord’s legal fees.
Original source can be found here.