Lelekakis v. Kamamis

103 A.D.3d 693, 962 N.Y.S.2d 143

This text of 103 A.D.3d 693 (Lelekakis v. Kamamis) 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
Lelekakis v. Kamamis, 103 A.D.3d 693, 962 N.Y.S.2d 143 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

In an action, inter alia, for specific performance of an option to purchase certain real property dated September 27, 1990, the plaintiff appeals from stated portions of an order and judgment (one paper) of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Markey, J.), entered May 1, 2009, which, among other things, upon a decision of the same court dated December 11, 2008, made after a nonjury trial, inter alia, on the issue of damages on the defendants’ counterclaim, is in favor of the defendants and against him on the defendants’ counterclaim to recover use and occupancy in the principal sum of $133,057.91 plus interest from March 1, 1998, and granted that branch of the defendants’ cross motion which was pursuant to CPLR 6315 to recover damages sustained by virtue of a certain preliminary injunction to the extent of awarding the defendants damages in the sum of $43,998.39, and the defendants cross-appeal from stated portions of the same order and judgment which, among other things, granted that branch of their cross motion which was pursuant to CPLR 6315 to recover damages sustained by virtue of the preliminary injunction in the sum of only $43,998.39, without interest, and granted that branch of the plaintiffs motion which was to discharge the plaintiffs undertaking to the extent of directing the Clerk of the Supreme Court, Queens County, or whoever had possession of the funds constituting the plaintiffs undertaking, to discharge to the plaintiff the remaining portion of the plaintiffs undertaking after the payment of certain fees and commissions.

Ordered that the order and judgment is modified, on the law and in the exercise of discretion, (1) by deleting the provisions thereof awarding the defendants damages on their counterclaim [694]*694to recover use and occupancy in the principal sum of $133,057.91 plus interest from March 1, 1998, and substituting therefor a provision awarding the defendants damages on their counterclaim to recover use and occupancy in the principal sum of $10,347.24 plus interest from October 1, 2001, and (2) by deleting the provisions thereof awarding the defendants damages pursuant to CPLR 6315 in the sum of $43,998.39, without interest, and granting that branch of the plaintiffs motion which was to discharge the plaintiffs undertaking to the extent of directing the Clerk of the Supreme Court, Queens County, or whoever had possession of the funds constituting the plaintiffs undertaking, to charge to the plaintiff the remaining portion of the plaintiffs undertaking after the payment of certain fees and commissions, and substituting therefor provisions awarding the defendants damages pursuant to CPLR 6315 in the sum of $166,708.06 plus interest from March 18, 2002, and denying that branch of the plaintiffs motion; as so modified, the order and judgment is affirmed insofar as appealed and cross-appealed from, without costs or disbursements, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Queens County, for the calculation of the interest due in accordance herewith and the entry of an appropriate amended order and judgment thereafter.

The plaintiff commenced this action, inter alia, for specific performance of an option to purchase certain real property dated September 27, 1990. The defendants, the owners of the subject property, interposed a counterclaim to recover for use and occupancy.

The plaintiff moved for a preliminary injunction enjoining the defendants from terminating his occupancy pending the determination of this action. The Supreme Court granted the plaintiffs motion and fixed the amount of the undertaking at $200,000. This Court subsequently modified the amount of the undertaking by reducing it to $108,000 (see Lelekakis v Kamamis, 303 AD2d 380 [2003]). Pursuant to various subsequent orders, the plaintiff was required to post additional undertakings until the total undertaking reached $167,000.

After a nonjury trial, the Supreme Court concluded that, although the purported option to purchase the property was unenforceable, the plaintiff was nevertheless entitled to recover the $303,000 he had paid towards the purchase price. The court also severed the portion of the defendants’ counterclaim which was to recover use and occupancy accruing subsequent to August 27, 2001, and dismissed the remaining portion of the defendants’ counterclaim. Accordingly, a judgment (hereinafter the first judgment) in favor of the plaintiff and against the [695]*695defendants was entered on August 15, 2005. The preliminary injunction remained in effect through September 21, 2006.

On appeal from the first judgment, this Court concluded that the Supreme Court should not have dismissed any part of the counterclaim to recover use and occupancy and improvidently exercised its discretion in severing the portion of the counterclaim which was to recover use and occupancy accruing subsequent to August 27, 2001 (see Lelekakis v Kamamis, 41 AD3d 662 [2007]). This Court remitted the matter to the Supreme Court, Queens County, “for a trial to determine the amount of use and occupancy owed by the plaintiff to the defendants, and for the entry of an amended judgment thereafter, to be calculated by deducting the sum awarded to the defendants for use and occupancy from the principal sum [of $303,000] awarded to the plaintiff’ (id. at 665).

On remittal, the plaintiff moved, inter alia, to discharge the undertaking. The defendants cross-moved pursuant to CPLR 6315 to recover, up to the amount of the undertaking, damages allegedly sustained by virtue of the preliminary injunction.

After a second trial, the Supreme Court determined that the defendants were entitled to $442,651.62 for the plaintiffs use and occupancy of the subject premises for the period beginning September 27, 1990, up to and including August 15, 2005. After deducting the $303,000 previously awarded to the plaintiff, the court determined that the defendants were entitled to judgment in the principal amount of $139,651.62 plus prejudgment interest from March 1, 1998, a date determined by the court to be a reasonable intermediate date under CPLR 5001 (b).

In considering that branch of the plaintiffs motion which was to discharge the plaintiff’s undertaking and the defendants’ cross motion to recover damages pursuant to CPLR 6315, the court concluded that the defendants were entitled to the damages sustained by reason of the preliminary injunction from March 18, 2002, through September 21, 2006. The court concluded that such damages included reasonable rent and profits for the subject property during that period. Although the court determined, based on the evidence presented at the second trial, the reasonable rent and profits for the entire period during which the preliminary injunction was in effect, the court only awarded the defendants damages for reasonable rent and profits from August 16, 2005, until September 21, 2006. Accordingly, the court granted the defendants’ cross motion only to the extent of awarding them damages pursuant to CPLR 6315 in the amount of $43,998.39, without interest, representing reasonable rent and profits for the period from August 16, 2005, [696]*696until September 21, 2006. The court granted that branch of the plaintiff’s motion which was to discharge the plaintiff’s undertaking to the extent of directing the Clerk of the Supreme Court, Queens County, or whoever had possession of the funds constituting the plaintiff’s undertaking, to discharge to the plaintiff the remaining portion of the plaintiffs undertaking after the payment of certain fees and commissions.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
103 A.D.3d 693, 962 N.Y.S.2d 143, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lelekakis-v-kamamis-nyappdiv-2013.