CCG Associates I v. Riverside Associates

157 A.D.2d 435, 556 N.Y.S.2d 859, 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6782
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 5, 1990
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 157 A.D.2d 435 (CCG Associates I v. Riverside Associates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
CCG Associates I v. Riverside Associates, 157 A.D.2d 435, 556 N.Y.S.2d 859, 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6782 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Sullivan, J.

CCG is a limited partner in Tiffany Place Associates, a New York limited partnership formed under a March 22, 1985 agreement for the purpose of purchasing, rehabilitating and [438]*438selling the premises located at 102 Kane Street, Brooklyn, New York, as individual residential units. Riverside Associates, a New York General Partnership, is the managing general partner of Tiffany Place. The individual defendants Scharf and Susan Diamond are also general partners.

Beginning in 1986, Tiffany Place offered residential living units and automobile parking units at the premises for sale. By July 29, 1987, it had sold all 70 living units and all 14 parking units. Thereafter, CCG sought an accounting of Tiffany Place’s assets, liabilities and operations as, it contends, is provided for by the limited partnership agreement. When Riverside failed to respond, CCG, on behalf of itself, and derivatively, on behalf of Tiffany Place, commenced this action to compel an accounting, alleging that Riverside had refused to account for capital contributions, costs, expenses, and disbursements of net cash flow and capital proceeds of Tiffany Place.

CCG’s claim for an accounting is based on paragraphs 21 and 23 of the March 22, 1985 agreement. Paragraph 23 requires Riverside, as liquidating trustee of Tiffany Place, to make an accounting upon dissolution "as of and through the last day of the month in which the dissolution occurs.” While paragraph 3 of the agreement provides that termination is to take place on December 31, 2025, paragraph 21 (a) provides for dissolution upon the occurrence of either of two earlier events:

"(ii) [t]he Partnership shall no longer have any interest in the Property [defined in paragraph 2 as the 'premises located at 1 Tiffany Place a/k/a 102 Kane Street, Brooklyn, New York’], including, without limitation, any interest in a purchase money mortgage or entity owning the Property; or * * *

"(v) the sale or transfer or condemnation of all or substantially all of the Property, except for a sale or transfer of the Property in connection with a sale-leaseback financing transaction or a transaction in which the Partnership acquires a purchase money mortgage and/or a deed to secure debt.”

Riverside and the individual defendants moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) on the ground, inter alia, that Tiffany Place was not dissolved under paragraph 21 of the partnership agreement because it had entered into arrangements that it characterized as a "sale-leaseback” and held an interest in the property, i.e., a purchase-money mort[439]*439gage on a parking unit to secure a $10,000 loan. Defendants also argued that the partnership had already provided CCG and the other limited partners with an "interim accounting”. In opposing the motion, a CCG partner rejected the purported interim accounting, noting that it failed to account for any income or capital of or loans to the partnership or to allocate any of the costs it purported to report. Furthermore, he pointed out, a general partner had not sworn to its accuracy and, indeed, the accounting firm that prepared it disclaimed any responsibility for its accuracy and disavowed any suggestion that it certified its truth. Moreover, the CCG partner disputed the significance of the parking unit purchase-money mortgage, noting that it was a purchase-money mortgage on a unit appurtenant to the property, not a purchase-money mortgage on the property itself. Furthermore, he argued, the mortgage amounted to a .00408652% interest in the property overall. Thus, he argued, 99.995% of Tiffany Place’s interest in the property had been sold, which interest, he contended, satisfied the "substantially all” language of the partnership agreement. In addition, he argued that the transactions involving the five units are not sale-leaseback agreements since Tiffany Place did not "leaseback” any units it sold, but merely agreed with the purchaser that it would have the power to lease the property to another third party.

Although rejecting the significance of the purported sale-leaseback transactions since they amounted to no more than a sale and lease to third parties, not the partnership, the motion court granted the motion. Specifically, it found that an event of dissolution had not occurred under paragraph 21 of the partnership in light of Tiffany Place’s retention of a purchase-money mortgage on the parking unit. Thus, since all of the property had not been sold, CCG had no right to an accounting. The court did not address CCG’s argument that Tiffany Place’s sale of 99.995% of the property constituted a sale of "substantially all” of the partnership’s property thereby triggering dissolution under paragraph 21 (a) (v). Nor did it address CCG’s request that, since an accounting was just and reasonable in the circumstances, Riverside be directed to account pursuant to Partnership Law § 99 (1) (b). We reverse.

While we reject CCG’s argument, based on a hypertechnical distinction between "property” and "unit”, that Tiffany Place’s mortgage on a parking unit is not an interest in the [440]*440property,

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Mizrahi v. Chanel, Inc.
193 Misc. 2d 1 (New York Supreme Court, 2001)
Metz v. Poughkeepsie Savings Bank, FSB (In re Metz)
231 B.R. 474 (E.D. New York, 1999)
Battery Associates, Inc. v. J & B Battery Supply, Inc.
944 F. Supp. 171 (E.D. New York, 1996)
Jones v. Fordham Hill Owners Corp.
225 A.D.2d 465 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1996)
Gold v. Ziff Communications Co.
638 N.E.2d 756 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1994)
American Express Bank Ltd. v. Uniroyal, Inc.
164 A.D.2d 275 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1990)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
157 A.D.2d 435, 556 N.Y.S.2d 859, 1990 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 6782, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ccg-associates-i-v-riverside-associates-nyappdiv-1990.