Matter of Joan Hansen & Co., Inc. v. Everlast World's Boxing Headquarters Corp.

137 A.D.3d 554, 26 N.Y.S.3d 692

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: March 15, 2016
• Docket: 106654/11 523 522
• Status: Published

Opinion

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Geoffrey D. Wright, J.), entered October 2, 2014, in favor of petitioner and against respondents, unanimously reversed, on the law, without costs, and the judgment vacated. Appeal from amended order, same court and Justice, entered September 29, 2014, unanimously dismissed, without costs, as subsumed in the appeal from the judgment.

In prior litigation between the parties, we have twice held that “[t]he only reasonable construction of the contract is that if no revenue is received, no commission is payable” (Joan Hansen & Co. v Everlast World’s Boxing Headquarters Corp., 296 AD2d 103, 111 [1st Dept 2002]; Hansen & Co. v Everlast World’s Boxing Headquarters Corp., 2 AD3d 266, 267 [1st Dept 2003], lv denied 2 NY3d 702 [2004]). Everlast was free under the contract to forgo royalties without incurring any obligation to pay commissions to plaintiff. If no royalties were paid by Circle Europe to Everlast during 2011, then no commissions are due from Everlast to plaintiff. We have also previously rejected plaintiff’s argument based on equitable considerations (Hansen & Co., 2 AD3d at 267).

Concur—Tom, J.R, Acosta, Renwick and Moskowitz, JJ.