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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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…
Recovering Damages From Water Diversion
The history of real property law is replete with litigation over how one property owner’s assertion of its rights to control and adapt their property impacts their neighbors. These cases usually involve damage to a neighboring property resulting from acts of so-called trespass—which might better be termed a nuisance—one of the most common being damage Full Article…
One of the Bedrocks of Real Estate Transfers: The Statute of Limitations Cannot Be Extended By State Courts in New York
In their article, Adam Leitman Bailey and Jeffrey Metz discuss how, in New York, courts generally lack the authority to extend statutes of limitations, with only narrow exceptions permitting tolling which reinforces the importance of timely legal action in real estate matters. Real estate markets require certainty. Lenders, developers, and all real estate actors require Full Article…
Lawful Source of Income Anti-Discrimination Laws as Applied to Rentals
Both New York State and New York City, as well as other municipalities within New York State, have laws on the books that prohibit discrimination by owners and managers of housing accommodations against prospective tenants based on the source of the tenants’ income. The New York State and New York City versions of these laws Full Article…
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