Park Union Condominium v. 910 Union Street, LLC

140 A.D.3d 673, 33 N.Y.S.3d 733

• Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
• Decided: June 30, 2016
• Docket: 1644 650291/15
• Status: Published

Opinion

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Saliann Scarpulla, J.), entered July 13, 2015, which denied plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgement in lieu of complaint, unanimously reversed, on the law, with costs, and the motion granted.

Plaintiffs, a condominium and its board of managers, established that the parties’ settlement agreement, covering claims related to defendant’s construction of the condominium, constituted “an instrument for the payment of money only” (CPLR 3213) and that defendant defaulted by failing to make payment under its terms (see Tongkook Am. v Bates, 295 AD2d 202 [1st Dept 2002]). In opposition, defendant failed to raise a triable issue as to a defense to the instrument (id.). The agreement contained an unconditional promise by defendant to pay plaintiffs upon the execution of releases attached to the agree ment, and it required no additional performance by plaintiffs as a condition precedent to payment or otherwise made defendant’s promise to pay something other than unconditional (see Stevens v Phlo Corp., 288 AD2d 56 [1st Dept 2001]).

We have considered the defenses raised, including that plaintiffs intentionally concealed that the condominium’s individual unit owners had made claims to their insurer related to defendant’s construction of the condominium, and find them unavailing as a matter of law.

Concur — Mazzarelli, J.P., Renwick, Moskowitz, Gische and Gesmer, JJ.