Commercial Division Blog: Current Developments in the Commercial Divisions of the New York State Courts

On October 3, 2025, Justice Melissa A. Crane found that questions of fact concerning the parties’ statements, understandings and intent required denial of defendants’ motion for summary judgment on fraud-based claims. The case is Chan v. Havemeyer Holdings LLC, Index No. 652359/2022. Read More

On April 25, 2025, Justice Joel M. Cohen of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Landau v. DGital Media LLC, Index No. 654067/2019, granting summary judgment dismissing plaintiffs' fraud claim and awarding attorneys' fees and costs against plaintiffs, because plaintiffs' own contemporaneous communications showed that they did not rely on defendants' alleged misrepresentation, holding: Read More

On April 1, 2025, Justice Joel M. Cohen granted plaintiff’s motion to dismiss certain counterclaims, including one for fraudulent inducement. World Host Group US, Inc. v. O’Cloud Ventures, LLC, Index No. 654128/2023. The Court explained: Read More

On February 28, 2025, in Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, LP v. Snow Joe LLC Index No. 653155/2023, Justice Andrea Masley dismissed a counterclaim and affirmative defense alleging fraudulent inducement asserted by Snow Joe LLC (“Snow Joe”), a licensee of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, LP (the “Licensor”), for failure to allege misrepresentations of present fact. Read More

On October 16, 2024, Justice Meilssa A. Crane denied a plaintiff’s motion to amend in substantial part, in a case brought by companies affiliated with the rapper 50 Cent seeking to recover for alleged misconduct by various Jim Beam liquor companies, their affiliates, or persons alleged to have participated in misconduct with them. The case is Sire Spirits, LLC v. Beam Suntory, Inc., Index No. 650799/2024. Read More

On August 27, 2024, Justice Andrew Borrok denied summary judgment to plaintiffs and granted it in part to one defendant in an action to collect on an alleged $9 million loan. The case is Elie Tahari v. Shelly Narkis, Index No. 650671/2021. Read More

On April 19, 2024, Justice Joel M. Cohen denied a motion to dismiss plaintiff’s claim for fraudulent transfer. The plaintiff in Monex Canada, Inc. v. Bank of America, N.A. et al., Index No. 655076/2023, alleged that a non-party had defrauded it out of millions of dollars by unlawfully reversing Pre-Authorized Debit (“PAD”) transfers, which funds were in turn ultimately directed to the moving defendants. Plaintiff asserted a claim for fraud under the New York Uniform Voidable Transactions Act and in particular Sections 273(a)(1) and 276 of the New York Debtor Creditor Law. The Court rejected the moving defendants’ argument that plaintiff had failed to state a claim for actual fraudulent transfer, explaining: Read More

On October 30, 2023, Justice Andrew Borrok, of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Kirschenbaum v De Baets, Index No. 653287/2019, 2023 NY Slip Op 33880(U), denying Plaintiff’s motion for leave to amend to file a third amended complaint where the proposed amendments were palpably insufficient and proposed claims that failed as a matter of law. The Court explained: Read More

On June 15, 2023, Justice Andrew Borrok of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Altium Growth Fund, L.P. v. Tingo Group, Inc., 2023 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2999. The Court granted Plaintiffs’ motion for an attachment pursuant to CPLR 6201(1), attaching shares in the Defendant Company. The Court found that Plaintiffs had shown a likelihood of success on the merits, and further found that grounds for an attachment pursuant to CPLR 6201 exists, explaining: Read More

On June 6, 2023, Justice Robert R. Reed of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in dMY Sponsor, LLC v. Glatt, 2023 NY Slip Op 50547(U), dismissing a negligent-misrepresentation counterclaim on the ground that allegations that the parties had known each other for decades and that the counterclaim defendant was a trusted friend of the counterclaim plaintiff's father were insufficient to give rise to a "special or privity-like relationship imposing a duty on the [counterclaim] defendant to impart correct information to the [counterclaim] plaintiff," explaining: Read More

In a Decision and Order, dated March 13, 2023, in Cimen v. HQ Capital Real Estate L.P., Index No. 656205/2020, Justice Joel M. Cohen of the New York County Commercial Division dismissed plaintiffs’ amended complaint asserting, among other things, fraud and negligent misrepresentation based on projections and estimates in an investment memorandum because plaintiffs failed to adequately allege that the projections were based on actionable factual misrepresentations or that they did not reflect defendants’ views with the requisite particularity. The Court explained: Read More

On November 29, 2022, Justice Barry Ostrager of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Eastern Effects v. 3911 Lemmon Ave. Assoc., 2022 N.Y.L.J. LEXIS 2408, dismissing a fraudulent inducement claim on the ground that it was barred by a merger and no-additional-representations clause, explaining: Read More

In a Decision and Order dated May 5, 2022, in Coulter v. Sorenson, 2022 NY Slip. Op. 31480(U), Justice Barry R. Ostrager granted defendants’ motion to dismiss plaintiff’s fraud claim as duplicative of plaintiff’s surviving breach of contract claim. Read More

In a Decision and Order dated February 4, 2022, in Berman v. Holland & Knight, Index No. 652466/2015, Justice Cohen denied plaintiffs' motion to compel its former attorneys from identifying clients who were advised about the same tax shelter strategy as were plaintiffs. Plaintiffs alleged that Holland & Knight lured them and other clients into investing millions of dollars in a bogus tax shelter scheme by giving them knowingly false legal advice in opinion letters. Denying the motion, the Court found that the privileged information that was sought was not relevant to their fraud claim: Read More

On January 5, 2022, Justice Masley of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in BRL Hampton Rd. LLC v. Heather, 2022 NY Slip Op 30039(U), granting plaintiff summary judgment even though it failed to conduct due diligence, was aware of the risks with a startup and was the one who had the idea to lend $1 million to defendant to get the construction project moving. The Court explained: Read More

On January 27, 2022, Justice Borrok of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in HOV Servs., Inc. v ASG Tech. Group, Inc., 2022 NY Slip Op 30299(U), granting defendant’s motion to dismiss claims for fraudulent inducement and violation of GBL § 349 and denying plaintiff’s affirmative defense of fraud where plaintiff alleged, among other things, that defendant concealed its belief that plaintiff was in violation of the Overlapping Customer Restriction: Read More

On October 5, 2021, the First Department issued a decision in Silver Point Capital Fund, L.P. v. Riviera Resources, Inc., 2021 NY Slip Op 05312, unanimously affirming Justice Borrok’s decision granting defendant’s motion to dismiss the amended complaint. The Court rejected the claim of former minority shareholders of defendant that defendant fraudulently induced them to sell it all of their shares in the corporation just three weeks before it announced an asset sale of its most valuable properties, after which sale prices soared and defendant made a substantial distribution to shareholders. Read More

On July 1, 2021, Justice Platkin of the Albany County Commercial Division issued a decision in Berks… Read More

On June 2, 2021, Justice Ostrager of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Ch… Read More

On May 27, 2021, the First Department issued a decision in Bullen v. CohnReznick, LLP, 2021 NY Slip … Read More