Latipac Corp. v. BMH Realty LLC

93 A.D.3d 115, 938 N.Y.S.2d 30
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 2, 2012
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 93 A.D.3d 115 (Latipac Corp. v. BMH Realty LLC) 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
Latipac Corp. v. BMH Realty LLC, 93 A.D.3d 115, 938 N.Y.S.2d 30 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Friedman, J.P.

The parties entered into an agreement for the purchase and sale of an apartment building for which the owner received J-51 tax benefits. The agreement included a representation that, as of its date, nine of the building’s apartments were fair-market rental units; the owner had deemed those units deregulated pursuant to the luxury decontrol provisions of the Rent Stabilization Law. Before the transaction closed, this Court issued a decision (subsequently affirmed by the Court of Appeals) holding that rent-stabilized apartments in a building receiving J-51 tax benefits were not subject to luxury decontrol (Roberts v Tishman Speyer Props., L.P., 62 AD3d 71 [2009], affd 13 NY3d 270 [2009] [Tishman]). The primary question on this appeal is whether Tishman, which rejected the interpretation of the Rent Stabilization Law then followed by the State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR), had any effect on the purchaser’s contractual obligation to close. We hold that it did not.

Plaintiff Latipac Corp., as purchaser, and defendant BMH Realty LLC, as seller, entered into a written agreement, dated July 15, 2008, for the purchase and sale of the apartment building located at 417-419 East 74th Street in Manhattan, for a purchase price of $6.2 million. Paragraph 41 of the agreement provides:

“Seller represents that the monthly rents listed on the annexed Schedule B are those rents being currently billed to said tenants for the month of July, 2008, but Seller makes no representation as to the continued occupancy of said Premises or any parts thereof by any tenant or tenants now in possession. In the event that there is any inconsistency between the terms and conditions set forth in the leases and [118]*118the rent schedule annexed hereto, the terms and conditions set forth in the leases shall prevail. Seller shall notify Purchaser of any vacancy that arises, but same shall not affect Purchaser’s obligations to close hereunder.”

The annexed Schedule B, entitled “Rent Roll,” sets forth, among other information, the monthly rental of each of the building’s units (22 residential and two commercial) and each residential unit’s regulatory “status,” either “FM” (fair-market) or “RS” (rent-stabilized). Nine of the residential units are identified as having- “FM” status; the “legal rent” of each of these nine units is described as “above $2000.”

Several other provisions of the agreement are relevant to this appeal. Paragraph 35 provides, in pertinent part:

“This Contract, as written, contains all the terms of the Contract entered into between the parties, and the Purchaser acknowledges that the Seller has made no representations, is unwilling to make any representations, and held out no inducements to the Purchaser, other than those herein expressed, and the Seller is not liable or bound in any manner by expressed or implied warranties, guarantees, promises, statements, representations or information pertaining to the said Premises as to the physical condition, income, expense, operation, or to what use the Premises can be applied, including but not limited to any matter or thing affecting or relating to the said Premises, except as herein specifically set forth.”

Paragraph 43 provides:

“If there are any complaints, challenges or proceedings pending for the reduction of any of the rentals or if any are filed prior to the closing of title the Seller will comply with and discharge same prior to closing at the Seller’s own cost and expense; and if said complaints, challenges or proceedings are not discharged by the Seller, the Seller shall give to the Purchaser a credit for the cost of such discharge of complaints or proceedings at the closing of title. Seller shall remain responsible for any rent rollbacks, overcharges or refunds for the period prior to the closing of title.”

Finally, paragraph 48 provides, in pertinent part:

[119]*119“If the Seller . . . shall be unable to comply with the obligations, representations or conditions on the part of the Seller to be performed as set forth herein, the sole obligation of the Seller shall be to refund Purchaser’s down payment made hereunder, and to reimburse the Purchaser for the cost of title examination, and upon making such refund and reimbursement, this Contract shall wholly cease and terminate.”

The closing of the transaction, which the agreement set for September 16, 2008, was postponed by a series of adjournments. By year-end, relations between the parties had become adversarial, with Latipac raising a number of issues that, if not resolved, it deemed grounds for withdrawing from the deal. By letter dated December 29, 2008, BMH set January 30, 2009 as the time-of-the-essence closing date. Latipac responded by letter dated January 6, 2009, in which it claimed that, by reason of, inter alia, unresolved decreased service orders by DHCR concerning two of the apartments (one dating back to 1988, the other to 1992), BMH was in breach of certain representations in the agreement. Based on the claims of breach, Latipac demanded the return of its $310,000 deposit.

On January 29, 2009 — the day before the closing date set by BMH — Latipac commenced this action in Supreme Court, New York County, seeking, inter alia, the return of its deposit and, by implication, a ruling that it had no further obligations under the agreement. By order to show cause of the same date, Latipac moved for a preliminary injunction staying the closing and precluding BMH from declaring Latipac to be in default pending resolution of the claims set forth in the complaint. The order to show cause contained a temporary restraining order (TRO) precluding BMH, pending a hearing on the motion, from declaring Latipac to be in default or obtaining release of the escrowed deposit funds. In support of the motion, Latipac argued, among other things, that the agreement was unenforceable because paragraph 43 — the provision for a credit to the purchaser at closing for any unresolved DHCR proceedings— was “indefinite, and nothing more than an agreement to agree.” As previously noted, decreased service orders concerning two of the building’s apartments remained unresolved at the time.

The motion court heard oral argument on Latipac’s motion for a preliminary injunction on March 4, 2009. Ruling from the bench, the court denied the motion and vacated the TRO. As [120]*120relevant to this appeal, the court found that paragraph 43 was enforceable because “a method of computing the credit [for the two decreased service orders] may be ascertained under [Rent Stabilization Law § ] 25-516 (a) by determining the maximum possible exposure to Latipac in the event that the tenant files and succeeds in a rent overcharge claim before the DHCR.” Promptly after the motion court rendered its March 4 decision, BMH notified Latipac, by letter of the same date, that it was setting April 6, 2009, as the new closing date.

On March 5, 2009 — the day after the denial of plaintiffs preliminary injunction motion — this Court issued the aforementioned Tishman decision. In Tishman, we held that a rent-stabilized apartment in a building for which the owner receives J-51 tax benefits (see

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

Related

North Hudson Realty Corp. v. Ecalp Corp.
216 A.D.3d 598 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2023)
558 Seventh Ave. Corp. v. Times Sq. Photo Inc.
2021 NY Slip Op 03244 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2021)
Petros Realty Owners, LLC v. Vetrano
Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York, 2018

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
93 A.D.3d 115, 938 N.Y.S.2d 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/latipac-corp-v-bmh-realty-llc-nyappdiv-2012.