Case Study

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Achieves Favorable Settlement of Construction Defects Claims Against a Sponsor

Plaintiffs-unit owners at a Queens County condominium brought an action against the Sponsor, asserting the following causes of action against the Sponsor relating to the allegedly defective construction of Plaintiffs’ unit: (1) breach of contract; (2) breach of warranty; (3) negligence; and (4) fraud. In this case, however, the Sponsor had remediated all of the alleged defects in the subject unit prior to Plaintiffs’ commencement of the action.

The case was chosen for the Court’s pilot program for automatic referral to mandatory mediation in the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program of the Court’s Commercial Division. As part of its mediation strategy, ALB PC prepared a detailed mediation memorandum, outlining each and every step the Sponsor had taken to meet its contractual obligations and remediate any alleged construction defects that violated the terms of the Condominium’s offering plan, and explaining how many of the conditions complained of by Plaintiffs were not, in fact, violations of the offering plan at all. The mediation memorandum also set forth, with supporting case law, how each of Plaintiffs’ additional causes of action were duplicative of their breach of contract claim and otherwise meritless.

The mediator was impressed with ALB PC’s aggressive advocacy on behalf of its client. ALB PC’s argument that the Sponsor had satisfied all of its contractual obligations to Plaintiffs and that Plaintiffs had no viable causes of action was successful. The case therefore was resolved for a nominal settlement payment.

Courtney Lerias and Rachel Sigmund of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented the plaintiff in this case.