Claims for Brokerage Commissions Dismissed – Again

Morrison Cohen last week won the dismissal of all claims brought by a real estate broker claiming a right to commissions for the sale of commercial real property in Brooklyn.  The ruling was the second time the broker's claims were dismissed against the firm's clients, who had purchased the property.

The broker, Broadway West Enterprises, Ltd., in a suit brought in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan, alleged that the purchasers owed it a brokerage fee arising from an offer letter that had been exchanged between the bank that held a mortgage on the property and an unrelated prospective buyer.  Although Morrison Cohen's clients were not parties to the offer letter and in fact bought the property from its owner rather than from the bank, the broker had alleged that they were still liable for the brokerage fee on the theory that they had tortiously interfered with the bank's offer letter. 

The court, in the case of Broadway West Enterprises, Ltd. v. Doral Money, Inc., SL Whale Realty, LLC, Brickell 13 Whale LLC, Whale Realty, LLC, Suzuki Capital Funding, Ltd., Nakazawa & Suzuki Capital LLC, Mark Karasick, Harry Skydell, Eli Kass, Nissan Perla and Solomon Knopf, Index No. 653638/2011, rejected the claims and dismissed the case against these defendants.

The Court had previously dismissed the claims in the broker's original complaint, finding that it failed to allege sufficient facts to establish its claims, but gave the plaintiff an opportunity to amend its pleading. In its latest ruling, the Court dismissed the case again, concluding that the new complaint had not cured the earlier defects.  Morrison Cohen represented defendants SL Whale Realty, LLC and Brickell 13 Whale LLC, the purchasers of the property, and Mark Karasick and Harry Skydell, the buyers' principals.