First Capital Asset Management, Inc. v. N.A. Partners, L.P.

300 A.D.2d 112, 755 N.Y.S.2d 63, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12520
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedDecember 17, 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 300 A.D.2d 112 (First Capital Asset Management, Inc. v. N.A. Partners, L.P.) 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
First Capital Asset Management, Inc. v. N.A. Partners, L.P., 300 A.D.2d 112, 755 N.Y.S.2d 63, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12520 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

—Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Herman Cahn, J.), entered October 10, 2001, awarding petitioner-respondent $8,276,308.77 as against respondent-appellant, and bringing up for review an order of the same court and Justice, entered June 27, 2001, which denied respondent-appellant’s motion for summary judgment seeking dismissal of this CPLR article 52 proceeding, and granted petitioner-respondent’s cross motion for partial sum[113]*113mary judgment on its sixth cause of action seeking to hold respondent-appellant liable for a prior judgment against respondent North American Consortium, Inc., unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, the judgment vacated and the cross motion denied.

This CPLR article 52 enforcement proceeding arises out of a prior action by petitioner-respondent First Capital Asset Management, Inc. (First Capital) against respondents N.A. Partners, L.P. (NAP), North American Consortium, Inc. (NACI), Sohrab Vahabzadeh (Vahabzadeh), the owner/principal of NAP and NACI, and others. In the prior action, First Capital alleged the breach of a stock purchase agreement which called for First Capital to sell 35% of the stock of a subsidiary to be formed to NAP/NACI for a purchase price of $4.5 million. It is undisputed that despite warranting in the stock purchase agreement that “ [t]he Buyer has funds, or financing agreements to provide funds, sufficient to pay the Purchase Price at the closing,” NAP/NACI failed to close on the transaction.

In May 1997, First Capital obtained a judgment in the amount of $4.5 million, plus interest and costs, against NACI and NAP in the prior action. However, in a February 27, 1997 order giving rise to said judgment, the IAS court also dismissed the complaint against Vahabzadeh individually. The court found that Vahabzadeh was not named as a “buyer” under the purchase agreement and that his signature in his individual capacity pertained only to obligations personal to him, such as a restrictive covenant. In June 1997, the IAS court denied First Capital’s motion for reargument and renewal of the February 1997 order, concluding that its “dubious” theories of promoter and alter ego liability should have been raised on the original motion.

In August 2001, this Court reversed the grant of summary judgment to Vahabzadeh in the prior action (First Capital Asset Mgt. v North Am. Consortium, 286 AD2d 263), finding the agreement ambiguous as to his personal liability.

Meanwhile, in April 1998, First Capital commenced the instant article 52 proceeding to enforce the May 1997 judgment against Vahabzadeh, NAP, North American Capital Guaranty, Inc. (NACGI), the general partner of NAP, and the Estate of Soleyman Vahabzadeh, Vahabzadeh’s father, with whom NACI or NAP purportedly had a financing agreement. In the sixth cause of action of its article 52 petition, First Capital sought to pierce the corporate veil of NACI and NACGI to hold Vahabzadeh personally liable for the May 1997 judgment on both an alter ego theory and under Texas Tax Code [114]*114Annotated §§ 171.252 and 171.255, which impose liability on officers and directors for corporate obligations incurred at a time when the corporation’s charter has been revoked for nonpayment of Texas franchise taxes.

In an October 30, 1998 judgment, the IAS court dismissed the article 52 petition as against Vahabzadeh on the ground of res judicata, since First Capital failed to raise these grounds when Vahabzadeh’s individual liability was litigated in the prior action.

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Bluebook (online)
300 A.D.2d 112, 755 N.Y.S.2d 63, 2002 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 12520, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-capital-asset-management-inc-v-na-partners-lp-nyappdiv-2002.