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

On November 3, 2025, Justice Joel M. Cohen denied defendants’ motion to dismiss several claims in Sirius XM Radio LLC v. Adeptus Parnters, LLC, Index No. 654079/2024. Plaintiff alleged claims of fraud, breach of contract, and negligence arising out of a royalty audit conducted by defendants. Defendants moved to dismiss the claims and the Court denied the motion. With respect to plaintiff’s negligence claim, defendants argued the claim was time-barred. The Court disagreed, explaining: Read More

On September 4, 2024, Justice Margaret A. Chan dismissed a counterclaim by defendant Brookline, LLC d/b/a Lilogy (Lilogy) for tortious interference with business relations. The case is BT Supplies West, Inc. v. Brookline, LLC, Index No. 651364/2023. Schlam Stone & Dolan LLP represented plaintiff BT Supplies West, Inc. (BT Supplies) in the matter. Read More

On December 12, 2023, the Appellate Division, First Department issued a decision in IKB International, S.A. in Liquidation v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. and several other consolidated actions, Case Nos. 2022-04133, 2022-04134, 2022-04178, and 2022-04194. Schlam Stone & Dolan serves as co-counsel for Plaintiffs-Respondents in these actions. The First Department affirmed the trial court’s rejection of the argument by Defendants-Appellants on summary judgment that the German statute of limitations governed the timeliness of Plaintiffs’ breach of contract claims, holding that the law of the place of the party that assigned the claims to Plaintiffs, in this case Ireland, was the proper foreign law to consider pursuant to New York’s borrowing statute, CPLR 202. The First Department explained: Read More

On June 30, 2023, Justice Margaret Chan of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Murphy v. PHG Funding LLC, 2023 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 3327, denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss on statute of limitations grounds. Specifically, the Court rejected the defendants’ argument that the three-year statute of limitations found in the recently enacted Consumer Credit Fairness Act (“CCFA”) applied, holding that because the action was brought before the passing of the CCFA and there was no showing that the New York legislature intended the CCFA to apply retroactively, the standard six-year statute of limitations for a breach of contract action applied. The Court explained: Read More

In a Decision, dated March 30, 2023, in MLRN LLC v. U.S. Bank, NA, 2023 NY Slip Op 01748, the First Department, among other things, (1) reversed the lower court’s denial of defendant’s motion to dismiss causes of action for certain breaches holding that the court should not have found that the claims accrued in New York and were timely under New York’s six-year statute of limitations and (2) reversed the lower court’s granting of plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment finding that court should have applied New York’s choice of law. The Court explained: Read More

On March 28, 2023, Justice Joel. M. Cohen of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision in Andes Petroleum Ecuador Ltd. v. Occidential Petroleum Corp, 2023 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1385. In this action, where the claims accrued in Ecuador and thus the Ecuador statute of limitations applied, the Court had previously denied defendant’s motion to dismiss, “finding that [defendant] failed to meet its burden of showing that [plaintiff’s] claims were time-barred under Ecuadorian law.” The First Department reversed and remanded with the instruction that “the Court consider ‘the expert evidence provided by each side concerning what Ecuadorian causes of action are most closely analogous to the New York causes of action’ for fraudulent conveyance.” On remand, the Court held that the most closely analogous Ecuadorian cause of action had a four-year statute of limitations, and that because the claims had been filed more than four years after they accrued, the Court granted the motion to dismiss. The Court explained: Read More

In a Decision, dated October 27, 2022, in 34-06 73, LLC v. Seneca Ins. Co. (2022 NY Slip Op 06029), the Court of Appeals held that the lower court abused its discretion as a matter of law when it granted plaintiffs’ motion to amend to include a time-barred claim. The Court explained: Read More

On May 10, 2022, in Zittman v. Bank of N.Y. Mellon, Index No. 656037/2021, Justice Andrew Borrok of the New York County Commercial Division held that tolling that saved claims brought by a class of certificate holders in residential mortgage-back security trusts did not apply to claims relating to trusts that were not part of the class even though the plaintiffs and trustee were the same and the claims similar. Read More

In an Opinion, dated March 3, 2022, in First Equity Realty v. Harmony Grp. II, 2022 N.Y. Slip. Op. 30674(U), Justice Joel M. Cohen rejected plaintiff’s argument that defendants were estopped from asserting a defense of statute of limitations. Read More

On July 1, 2021, the First Department issued a decision in Wagner v. Pegasus Capital Advisors, L.P.,… Read More

On May 7, 2021, Justice Emerson of the Suffolk County Commercial Division issued a decision in F.W. … Read More

On April 27, 2021, the First Department issued a decision in CWCapital Cobalt VR Ltd. v. CWCapital I… Read More

On April 1, 2021, the First Department issued a decision in Boesky v. Levine, 2021 NY Slip Op. 02059… Read More

On March 25, 2021, the First Department issued a decision in Wimbledon Fin. Master Fund, Ltd. v. Hal… Read More

On February 11, 2021, the Fourth Department issued a decision in Broadway Warehouse Co. v. Buffalo B… Read More

On January 26, 2021, the First Department issued a decision in Pace v. Horowitz, 2021 NY Slip Op. 00… Read More

On December 17, 2020, Justice Ostrager of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision … Read More

On December 8, 2020, Justice Friedman of the New York County Commercial Division issued a decision i… Read More

On December 2, 2020, the Second Department issued a decision in Commodore Factors Corp. v. Deutsche … Read More

On November 25, 2020, the Second Department issued a decision in U.S. Bank, N.A. v. Mandracchia, 202… Read More