Lefcourt v. Shore

513 A.2d 455, 355 Pa. Super. 330, 1986 Pa. Super. LEXIS 11598
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 31, 1986
DocketNo. 02075
StatusPublished

This text of 513 A.2d 455 (Lefcourt v. Shore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lefcourt v. Shore, 513 A.2d 455, 355 Pa. Super. 330, 1986 Pa. Super. LEXIS 11598 (Pa. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

POPOVICH, Judge:

This is an appeal from the judgment of $19,800.00 entered following a jury trial against the appellants/defendants, Seymour and Bunny Shore. We affirm.

We are asked to review the denial of the appellants’ motion for a new trial and/or judgment n.o.v. In doing so, as to the judgment n.o.v. claim, we first must view the evidence, as well as any reasonable inferences that can be drawn therefrom, in a light most favorable to the verdict-winner. McDevitt v. Terminal Warehouse Co., 304 Pa.Super. 438, 450 A.2d 991 (1982), allocatur denied.

[332]*332The record reveals that in early April of 1982 Mrs. Shore contacted Mr. Lefcourt, the public relations officer for Bucks County and someone she and her husband had known for some 25 years, to ask him to do what he could to stop an organization from buying a piece of property (known as the Klein Building) and starting a business that would compete with their operation (a flea market known as Super Flea, Inc.). Lefcourt agreed to act on their behalf, but he wanted to be paid a fee for his services. Mrs. Shore stated that her accountant (Arthur M. Pollock) would draft a letter to that effect and mail it to him for his perusal. Such a letter, dated May 12, 1982, was forwarded to Lefcourt and provided, in relevant part:

Dear Harold:
I have been authorized by my client the “Shores” to offer to you, for them, the following financial arrangements for your services in regard to the ... [Klein] property.
Should your efforts result in the “Shores” obtaining a lease on the ... [Klein] property, the “Shores” will pay to you a fee equal to ten percent (10%) of the first year lease rental exclusive of any rent paid for utilities, taxes, insurance or maintenance, etc. over a twelve month period from the date of execution of the lease.
* * * * * *
Should you have any questions in regard to this matter, please give me a call.

Prior to receipt of the letter, Lefcourt had completed a meeting with the township manager and secured the address of a New Jersey-based group (counselled by a Mr. November) interested in the property. He also learned that the group had merely made “an inquiry” and not a proposal. Upon communicating these facts to Mrs. Shore, Lefc-ourt outlined what he intended to do, i.e., he was going to get in touch with the people involved and “discourage them from coming in initially”. Additionally, this was the first he learned that the Shores desired ownership of or a lease to the Klein Building. He informed Mrs. Shore that he would [333]*333use, as he put it, his “public relations efforts” to help in this endeavor since he knew the owner of the building (a Mesh-ulam Riklis, Chairman of the Board of Rapid American Corporation).

Soon after Lefcourt’s conversation with Mrs. Shore, Mr. November was phoned several times. During the course of these calls, Lefcourt advised November of the Shores’ position, and their willingness to take the matter to court if need be to postpone the New Jersey group’s securement of the property in question. November, in turn, informed Lefcourt that he represented a corporation with two million dollars in assets and it was prepared to make a “serious proposal and they were negotiating ... with Rapid American”. When Lefcourt sought to have a meeting and discuss the Klein issue even further, Mr. November acknowledged his acceptance at first, but, thereafter, the concern waned and Lefcourt heard from him no more.

Sometime in May of 1982, Lefcourt brought into the picture a Mr. DeMauro, the division manager for a real estate concern known as “Previews”. Lefcourt told De-Mauro that he represented the Shores and asked whether DeMauro would accept them as clients. It appears that DeMauro held the exclusive listing on the Klein Building at various times for Rapid American. Lefcourt knew this from his dealing in 1981 with Rapid American, on behalf of the Bucks County Commissioners, in regard to the same piece of property.

When the question of the payment of any commission or referral fee came up, Lefcourt gave the name of Matthews and White as the law firm he was associated with in this area of public relations, and to which such matters should be directed. DeMauro arranged to forward any commissions due, as a result of any agreement between the Shores and Rapid American, to the law firm.

By letter dated June 10, 1982, Pollock asked Lefcourt to arrange a meeting with Riklis. Lefcourt called DeMauro and told him, as the realtor, to contact Mr. Ackerman, a vice-president in charge of real estate for one of Rapid [334]*334American’s wholly-owned subsidiaries and the son-in-law of Riklis. Mrs. Shore was informed of the arrangements being made.

A meeting in New York was conducted, either in the latter part of June or in the early part of July of 1982. Because Lefcourt was not able to attend, DeMauro asked, inasmuch as it was Lefcourt’s responsibility to represent the Shores’ public relations interest by establishing a link to Riklis, to have a letter of introduction for the Shores prepared by Lefcourt. This occurred (see Exhibit P-4) and was felt by DeMauro to be necessary since the November group, “based on their numbers and their history of operations[, was] a stronger client or prospect to purchase or lease the situation than the Shores at that time____” Even Mr. Ackerman acknowledged his discussions with the November group, through a New York amalgam of individuals, and the consideration given to all interested parties involved in acquiring the Klein property.

After the meeting in New York, but before July 5, 1982, Mrs. Shore phoned Lefcourt to say, “... you have to do something, we want to move in September with a date ... Could you please call your friend Meshulam and tell him.” Lefcourt phoned Riklis’ office and spoke to his secretary about the Shores’ request and asked if anything could be done. The next thing Lefcourt knew, the Shores were making improvements to open in September. A lease had been obtained by the Shores, with the first ten months rent being credited by Rapid American toward the costs expended by the lessees to renovate the Klein property. Lefcourt received an invitation to attend the grand opening.

By October of 1982, Lefcourt had yet to receive any remuneration for his services. When he inquired about his 10% fee, which he calculated to be $19,200.00 (10% of the $192,000.00 yearly rent due Rapid American), the Shores scheduled a meeting for November 3 or 4 to discuss payment.

The Shores, and another interested party in the joint venture, queried Lefcourt as to what he had done, if any[335]*335thing, to facilitate the leasing of the Klein property. As far as the Shores were concerned, Lefcourt had not lived up to his part of the bargain in failing to attend the meetings in New York with Rapid American and not having Riklis present during these sessions. But, when Lefcourt recounted what he had done (behind the scenes), the Shores conceded that they owed him something and offered to pay him $3,200.00.

Lefcourt, indignant over the whole turn of events, left and, thereafter, commenced the present law suit. After a three-day trial, a jury found in favor of Lefcourt and awarded him $19,800.00. This timely appeal followed.

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Related

Wilkins v. Heebner
480 A.2d 1141 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1984)
McDevitt v. Terminal Warehouse Co.
450 A.2d 991 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1982)

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Bluebook (online)
513 A.2d 455, 355 Pa. Super. 330, 1986 Pa. Super. LEXIS 11598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lefcourt-v-shore-pasuperct-1986.