LI Equity Network, LLC v. Village in Woods Owners Corp.

79 A.D.3d 26, 910 N.Y.S.2d 97
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedOctober 19, 2010
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 79 A.D.3d 26 (LI Equity Network, LLC v. Village in Woods Owners Corp.) 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
LI Equity Network, LLC v. Village in Woods Owners Corp., 79 A.D.3d 26, 910 N.Y.S.2d 97 (N.Y. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

OPINION OF THE COURT

Belen, J.

When the plaintiff, LI Equity Network, LLC, a limited liability company, purchased shares allocated to one of the cooperative units of the defendant Village in the Woods Owners Corp. (hereinafter the defendant) at a nonjudicial foreclosure sale, the plaintiff’s representative agreed to an independent auctioneer’s “Terms of Sale.” These “Terms of Sale” allegedly bound prospective purchasers to the provisions in the defendant cooperative corporation’s governing documents, including the [28]*28proprietary lease and house rules. The cooperative corporation’s governing documents required, among other things, that the defendant’s board of directors approve prospective purchasers before they obtain possession of a unit and the shares allocated to it. After the plaintiff bought the shares allocated to the subject unit at the nonjudicial foreclosure sale, the defendant’s board of directors notified the plaintiff that it would reject the plaintiff’s application. The plaintiff commenced this action, inter alia, for specific performance of the closing of title on the ground that it is statutorily entitled to own the unit, regardless of the prohibitive language in the defendant’s governing documents. The foreclosing lender, the defendant Washington Mutual Bank (hereinafter the lender), had not appeared in this action.

The principal issue presented on this appeal is whether the successful bidder on foreclosed shares allocated to a cooperative unit at a nonjudicial auction, which is governed by article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (hereinafter UCC), who agreed to be bound by “Terms of Sale” providing that the sale was subject to, inter alia, a cooperative corporation’s governing documents, must seek the approval of a cooperative corporation’s board of directors and otherwise comply with a cooperative corporation’s governing documents prior to obtaining the shares and proprietary lease referable to the unit. We answer this question in the affirmative.

In 1998, Alfred Gerard and Greg Walters obtained a loan from the lender secured by a mortgage on the shares allocated to, and the proprietary lease referable to, their cooperative apartment, unit A2, located on 2 Eucalyptus Court in Selden, New York (hereafter the unit). The cooperative corporation is known as Village in the Woods Owners Corp. In January 2007, the defendant evicted Gerard and Walters for failing to pay their maintenance fees. After their eviction, both tenants defaulted on their mortgage. The lender declared the loan in default and scheduled a public auction of the shares and proprietary lease referable to the unit.

The parties agree that the auction constituted a nonjudicial sale under article 9 of the UCC. The auctioneer conducted the sale pursuant to the provisions in the “Terms of Sale.” Prospective bidders assented to these terms by executing a “Memorandum of Sale.” One of these bidders, the plaintiff, a limited liability company, successfully bid on the unit and sought to close title on it.

[29]*29Citing various provisions in its governing documents, i.e., the offering plan, proprietary lease, bylaws, house rules, and application procedures, the defendant advised the plaintiff that the defendant’s board of directors (hereinafter the Board) would not approve any transfer of shares to the plaintiff. Although the plaintiff never filed a formal application with the Board to obtain the shares, the Board independently reviewed and rejected the plaintiff’s proposal to close on the unit and then sell it to a Board-approved purchaser.

In May 2007, the plaintiff commenced this action against the defendant and the lender, inter alia, for “specific performance requiring that a closing be scheduled and that the plaintiff be given permission to close title.” The plaintiff also sought damages against the defendant for breach of the implied duty of fair dealing and against the lender for breach of contract. The plaintiff then moved by order to show cause, in effect, for summary judgment on the first cause of action to compel specific performance of the closing of title. The defendant opposed the motion and cross-moved to enjoin the plaintiff from entering the unit pending resolution of the action.

In an order entered December 11, 2008, the Supreme Court granted the plaintiffs motion, denied the defendant’s cross motion, and directed the transfer of title to the plaintiff (2008 NY Slip Op 33613[U]). The Supreme Court reasoned that the defendant did not have the power to interfere with the transfer of its proprietary shares resulting from a “judicial sale.” The defendant appeals. We reverse.

We find that the plaintiff is subject to the approval requirements found in the defendant’s governing documents. Once subject to these documents, the “Terms of Sale” do not exempt the plaintiff from the approval requirements. We also find that the defendant properly exercised reasonable business judgment when it applied the approval requirements to the plaintiffs proposal to close on the shares allocated to the unit.

On appeal, the defendant contends that the plaintiff’s purchase of the shares allocated to the unit is subject to the pertinent terms in its governing documents. These terms require the Board to approve prospective purchasers and prohibit corporate and other business ownership of the shares allocated to the defendant’s units. The plaintiff argues that cooperative approval requirements cannot prevent the transfer of shares allocated to the foreclosed unit by “operation of law,” in this case, pursuant to UCC article 9. The plaintiff relies on [30]*30cases holding that cooperatives may not interfere with a judgment creditor’s levy of execution on the shares allocated to the unit of a defaulting cooperative tenant or with a decedent tenant’s right to bequeath the shares allocated to his cooperative unit.

“Cooperative apartments are personal property, not real property” (Matter of Pollack, 18 AD3d 555, 557 [2005]). Accordingly, “[a] contract for the sale of a cooperative apartment, in reality a sale of securities in a cooperative corporation, is governed by the Uniform Commercial Code” (Friedman v Sommer, 63 NY2d 788, 789 [1984]). As here, where a cooperative tenant defaults “on a security agreement which underlies a loan related to the purchase of shares in a cooperative, the remedies found in UCC article 9 are available to the lender” (Fridman v Dime Sav. Bank of N.Y., 204 AD2d 387, 388 [1994]).

To that end, UCC 9-610 governs nonjudicial foreclosure sales in New York State. UCC 9-610 (a) states that when a debtor defaults on a security agreement, the secured party “may sell, lease, license, or otherwise dispose of any or all of the collateral.” UCC 9-610 (b) mandates that

“[e]very aspect of a disposition of collateral, including the method, manner, time, place, and other terms, must be commercially reasonable. If commercially reasonable, a secured party may dispose of collateral by public or private proceedings, by one or more contracts, as a unit or in parcels, and at any time and place and on any terms” (emphasis added).

In this case, paragraph 6 of the “Terms of Sale” clearly states: “[t]he apartment is sold . . . subject to the . . . by-laws; rules, regulations, procedures, resolutions, Offering Plan, charges, fees and any amendments thereto of [the defendant].” At the direction of the lender’s counsel, the auctioneer sold the shares allocated to the unit to the plaintiff in accordance with these provisions.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
79 A.D.3d 26, 910 N.Y.S.2d 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/li-equity-network-llc-v-village-in-woods-owners-corp-nyappdiv-2010.