By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio One of my most repeated lines goes as follows: all newly constructed buildings have problems; the good builders come back and fix them. I should add to my adage, that as long as they sue on time, good lawyers also get buildings fixed. When disputes arise, between Full Article…
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About John Desiderio
John M. Desiderio, Partner and Chair of the Real Estate Litigation Practice Group, has been a practicing attorney in New York City for over forty years. His practice is concentrated in cooperative/condominium representation, real estate litigation, title litigation, mortgage foreclosures, and counseling in antitrust and trade regulation matters.
John M. Desiderio is rated by Martindale-Hubbell as “AV Preeminent” signifying the “Highest Possible Rating in Both Legal Ability and Ethical Standards.” Mr. Desiderio has been rated “AV Preeminent” by Martindale-Hubbell for over 30 years and has been named a Super Lawyer in the New York Metro Area.
Mr. Desiderio received his A.B. degree from Fordham University in 1963, an LL.B. degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1966, and an LL.M. degree from New York University School of Law in 1969. He served as a Captain in U.S. Army Intelligence from 1966 to 1968.
From 1969 to 1980, Mr. Desiderio was an Assistant New York State Attorney General under Attorneys General Louis Lefkowitz and Robert Abrams, and from 1972 to 1980 he served as Chief of the Attorney General’s Anti-Monopolies (now Antitrust) Bureau. He entered private practice in 1981 and represented clients in antitrust, Civil Rico, real estate, and general civil litigation. From 1989 to February 1999, he was a member of a prestigious litigation firm.
He has extensive experience in conducting and defending depositions and in conducting trials and arguing appeals in both New York State and federal courts.
Mr. Desiderio has extensive litigation experience in representing both landlords and tenants in commercial and residential real estate litigation. His cases in this area have involved issues relating to ownership of title to property, the right to enforce contracts of sale, landlord obligations to furnish habitable dwellings, tenant obligations to meet conditions of their tenancy, and the applicability of common law and statutory warranties to newly constructed or converted condominium and cooperative apartments. Mr. Desiderio also leads the firm’s American with Disabilities Act defense practice.
Cooperative Board Minutes Minimum Requirements to Reject a Cooperative Purchase Application
By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio How is a co-op applicant to know whether a rejection decision was made for legitimate corporate purposes, or because of one or more board members’ unlawful motivations? The first place to look would be the co-op’s minutes of its board meetings. Adam Leitman Bailey and John Desiderio Full Article…
Whether Co-op Boards Can Reject Purchasers for a ‘Too Low’ Sales Price
Adam Leitman Bailey and John Desiderio discuss ‘Stromberg v. East River’ which provides new guidance on when co-op boards may consider sale price in rejecting a purchaser without losing protection under the business judgment rule. In 2022, in a prior article, the authors concluded: “Until there is a clear holding by an appellate court that Full Article…
When Is a Breach of a Real Estate Contract ‘Material’?
Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio explain how New York courts decide whether a buyer’s or seller’s failure to meet a real estate contract obligation is a “material” breach that justifies remedies such as forfeiture of a deposit, rescission, or specific performance. Whether a default is deemed “material” often determines whether a purchaser forfeits Full Article…
Establishing ‘Time Is of the Essence’ and Performing at a ‘Time Is of the Essence’ Closing
As the authors noted in our first article on Time of the Essence (TOE) Closings, “real estate closings may be the most basic and common real estate experience, but the familiarity ends once a provision of the contract of sale has been breached.” See Bailey and Desiderio, Enforcing the Contract—Obtaining Down Payment or Specific Performance (New York Law Full Article…
Distributing the Assets of a Limited Liability Corporation
By Adam Leitman Bailey By John M. Desiderio In New York, Limited Liability Corporations (“LLC[s]”) are governed under the Limited Liability Company Law. LLCs have “perpetual existence” but may dissolve without judicial intervention as otherwise provided for in Limited Liability Company Law, §701. Nevertheless, upon the petition of a member, or someone acting on behalf Full Article…
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Summary Judgment by Long-Term Squatter Claiming Adverse Possession to Part of its Client’s Commercial Building
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client is a commercial developer with numerous holdings throughout the City, including many former commercial properties that it has repurposed. In this case, our client purchased two adjacent buildings in Manhattan with the intent to combine them into a new property. One of the buildings was immediately leased back to its Full Article…
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Forces Cooperative to Approve Alteration Plans and Settles Discrimination Lawsuit
A European woman and her young family sought to perform renovations to their cooperative apartment to expand the Building Code (“Building Code”), and submitted plans to the Board for review and approval. After multiple exchanges with the Board’s architect, the Board fully approved the renovations to the apartment, and the work went underway. Little did Full Article…
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