Category Archives: Real Estate

Did Stipulation Adjourning Closing Create a TOE Date?

In 2010,  Edmund Lashley entered into a contract of sale with BDL Real Estate Development Corp. for 1474  Ralph Avenue in Brooklyn. Lashley had been leasing one of two buildings located on the property for use as an auto body repair shop since 2007. The contract did not contain a closing date. Sometime after the parties entered into the contract, BDL commenced a landlord-tenant proceeding against Lashley, which the parties settled in a stipulation dated February 16, 2011. Paragraph 2 of the stipulation provided that “[i]n settlement and satisfaction of all claims by [Lashley], and in consideration of [Lashley] closing title on the purchase of 1474 Ralph Avenue, Brooklyn, New York, no later than March 31, 2011, [BDL] waives the rent due for July 2010.” The closing never occurred.

Court Determines If Seller Validly Cancelled Contract/Keeps $70k Deposit

On December 21, 2016, Euclid Burgan and Bernadette Burgan entered into a written contract with Hegeman Plaza LLC to sell the property at 513 Hegeman Avenue in Brooklyn for $900,000.00. Samuel Schwartz signed the contract as the sole member of Plaza. A down payment of $70,000.00 was made upon execution.

The contract was contingent upon Plaza obtaining a written mortgage commitment in the amount of $900,000.00 within 45 days from the date of contract. Moreover, Plaza was prohibited from assigning the contract to a third party without the Burgans’ written consent. On March 6, 2017, an addendum was signed and added to the contract which documented the Burgans’ intent to utilize the transaction as an Internal Revenue Code § 1031 tax-deferred property exchange. The addendum required Plaza to cooperate with the Burgans to complete the 1031 exchange.

Court Adjudicates Disputed RPAPL  881 Application

East Edge BK, LLC moved by Order to Show Cause for an Order, pursuant to RPAPL § 881, granting East Edge access to the adjacent premises of Audrey Nedd, located at 78 East 53rd Street, Brooklyn, New York 11203, to install safety protections.

Seller Has Remorse and Sues Attorney For Malpractice

In March 20, 2017,  Michael Mamone sold a commercial building to Robert Buttiglione, a friend of Mamone’s sister, for $100.00 and attorneys fees. The contract of sale, the deed and the closing documents were all signed on March 20, 2017. That day the deed was given to Mamone’s attorney, Barbara Diehl, for recording. The deed was never recorded. When Buttiglione insisted Diehl record the deed she refused claiming her client, Mamone, had reconsidered and refused to consent to the recording of the deed.

Small Claims Court Determines Amount of Damages Due to Unintentional Taking

In his small claims complaint, James K. McCormack sought $3,480.00 for an alleged encroachment of approximately twenty feet onto his property resulting from a new leach field associated with repairs to the septic system on the neighboring property owned by Derrick and Cystalyn Miller. The complaint stated that “this ruined the value of the property for me and an encroachment as such would make it difficult to sell my property and reduce its value. I want the appraised value of the property the leach field is on and its surrounding area (79′ × 25′) and the cost to separate it from the rest of my property.”

Did Failure to Comply Result in Forfeiture of Damage Claim?

Michael Gordon was a tenant of Arcadian Corp. N.V. at 160 Central Park South where she owns a condominium unit. He brought a small claims action for damages Arcadian failed to return his security deposit after he moved out on March 26, 2021. There was a dispute as to the date he vacated because he did not remove his furniture until May 25.

Was Owner Entitled to Substantial Los of Space/“Severance”? 

When I took the prep course for the New York State Bar Examination 1969, micro-subjects– like eminent domain, zoning and the like–were mentioned and reviewed only in passing or not at all. Over the years I have learned that friends and colleagues turned those singular topics (worthy of only cursory review when studying for the “Bar”) into full-time and successful careers. And that each such area has a specific jurisprudential legacy of constitutional, statutory and decisional law. As a recent case illustrates, the “taking by eminent domain” of a small portion of a large suburban shopping center involved and invoked just one substrate of that complicated legacy–“severance damages”.