Madison Equities, LLC v. Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava

2016 NY Slip Op 7144, 144 A.D.3d 431, 39 N.Y.S.3d 779

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: November 1, 2016
• Docket: 2116 162041/14
• Status: Published

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Eileen Bransten, J.), entered on or about December 17, 2015, which granted defendant’s motion to dismiss the amended complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (1), unanimously affirmed, without costs.

“[W]here a written agreement . . . unambiguously contradicts the allegations supporting a litigant’s cause of action for breach of contract, the contract itself constitutes documentary evidence warranting the dismissal of the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (1)” (150 Broadway N.Y. Assoc., L.R v Bodner, 14 AD3d 1, 5 [1st Dept 2004]). Here, plaintiff contends that, in paragraph 8 of the parties’ letter of intent, defendant represented and warranted that it had no agreement with Tenant-wise, Inc. concerning the calculation of the latter’s fees. However, paragraph 8 simply does not say what plaintiff claims it says, and thus, the court properly granted defendant’s motion.

Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P, Saxe, Moskowitz, Kahn and Gesmer, JJ.