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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Opens

On January 3, 2000, starting from scratch, Adam Leitman Bailey opened the doors to the firm bearing his name.  Bartering a small law office in exchange for providing legal services for his landlord, Adam Leitman Bailey pledged to become the best law firm in New York 1) by only taking on business where he believed he was possibly the best lawyer for the case or deal and 2) by creating a level of client service surpassing that of all other...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Claim Against Title Company Regarding a Purported Negligent Search

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a title company in connection with a claim that the search performed by the title company was negligent.  The title company was retained by the purchaser of the property in connection with the sale of a property that was inherited after the death of seller’s father.  Seller represented that he was the sole heir of the decedent and executed an heirship affidavit indicating he was the sole heir. The property was transferred to...

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Who’s Who in Real Estate Law 2000

Habitat Magazine

Personal History Birth: Bayside, NY Avocations, Hobbies: Running, Reading, Architecture, Basketball Education B.A., With honors, Rutgers J.D., cum laude, Syracuse University College of Law. Significant Legal Accomplishment Our success comes from our ability to not only win at trial or obtain favorable settlement results but from being able to see potential problems in advance. That prevents litigation and can save thousands of dollars. One of the advantages of our firm is that we practice in many areas of real estate...

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Are Buyers of New Condos and Co-ops Subject to Caveat Emptor?

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio  Before purchasing a condominium or cooperative apartment in a newly built high rise of six or more stories in New York, a prospective buyer needs to pay close attention to the warranty provisions of the sponsor’s offering plan and purchase agreement. Unless the agreement contains the sponsor’s express warranty that the construction of the building or the apartment will be free from material defects, if a material defect is later discovered, the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails in Title Litigation Involving An Interpretation of the New York Recording Statute

Rivas v. McDonnell Supreme Court of the State of New York; Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department My Story: The Importance of Title Insurance I got the panicked call at about 7 PM one evening from Earl, a friend and fellow real estate attorney. “Adam, I really, really screwed up, man,” he said, sounding out of breath. “I need help big time. I’m desperate.” Earl went on to explain that he represented a buyer named Pura Rivas who was purchasing a...

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Jonathan W. Burke Realty Co. v. Alliance LLC

New York Law Journal

10/22/2003 N.Y.L.J. 17, (col. 1) New York Law Journal Volume 230 Copyright 2003 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved Wednesday, October 22, 2003 Decisions JONATHAN W. BURKE REALTY CO. V. ALLIANCE 77 LLC SUPREME COURT IA PART 36 BROKER DENIED SUMMARY RECOVERY OF COMMISSION FOR TENANT CLAIMED BARRED BY ZONING REGULATIONS NEW YORK Landlord/Tenant Law Justice Shafer PLAINTIFF REAL estate broker sought summary recovery of a commission for finding a tenant, a tanning salon, for defendant’s commercial premises. The landlord...

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Annual Meeting of the Antitrust Section of the New York State Bar Association

John M. Desiderio spoke on the topic of “Antitrust Injury: Before and After Brunswick.”    

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Plaintiff’s Claim of Right of First Refusal, Defendants Can Enter Into the Contract With a Third Party

8.3.2.3.V2 Million Gold Realty Co., Inc. v. S.E. & K. Corp. N.Y.A.D. 1 Dept.,2004. Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York. MILLION GOLD REALTY CO., INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. S.E. & K. CORP., Defendant-Respondent. Action No. 1. Million Gold Realty Co., Inc., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. S.E. & K. Corp., et al., Defendants-Respondents. Action No. 2. Million Gold Realty Co., Inc., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. S.E. & K. Corp., et al., Defendants-Respondents. Action No. 3. Feb. 19, 2004. Background: Action was brought against landowners...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Legal Battle for a Holocaust Survivor, Finding Him a New Home

Chaim Indig, an 83-year-old Auschwitz survivor from Boro Park, is now able to live out of his days peacefully and comfortably in a handicapped-accessible luxury apartment in Midwood, known as the Premier House thanks to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Read more about this case below:

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Kahn v. 230-79 Equity Inc.

TRACEY KAHN, Petitioner-Tenant-Respondent, v. 230-79 EQUITY INC. AND MICHAEL RICH, Respondents-Landlords-Appellants, DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING PRESERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Respondent-Respondent. 570669/03 SUPREME COURT OF NEW YORK,APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT 2004 NY Slip Op 50302U; 2 Misc. 3d 140A; 2004 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 409 April 8, 2004, Decided NOTICE: [**1] THIS OPINION IS UNCORRECTED AND WILL NOT BE PUBLISHED IN THE PRINTED OFFICIAL REPORTS. PRIOR HISTORY: Landlords appeal from an order of the Civil Court, New York County, dated July 21, 2003 (Jerald...

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New Home Warranty: An Open Question Seeking an Answer

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio In 1998, in Fumarelli v. Marsam Construction, Inc.1 the New York Court of Appeals decided that the statutory housing merchant implied warranty contained in Article 36-B of the General Business Law2 “effects a complete substitute for the common law remedy” that the Court itself first proclaimed ten years earlier in Caceci v. DiCanio Construction Corp.3 Nevertheless, despite the sweeping statement, in Fumarelli, that Article 36-B “eclipses the holding in Caceci,” it remains...

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Commercial Property: Landlords May Entirely Eliminate Leasing

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio Commercial landlords need relief. They are, and have been increasingly, frustrated by the procedural and substantive moves that determine (more often than not) the scope and duration of an eviction action in landlord-tenant litigation. A knowledgeable commercial tenant’s attorney, without any great effort, will readily employ defensive tactics that can delay, by as much as six months or more, the time when a landlord can reacquire lawful possession of its valuable commercial...

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Self-Help Evictions: The Neglected Commercial Remedy

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio Where the right to do so is expressly reserved in a commercial lease, a landlord may reenter the leased premises peaceably, without resort to court process, upon termination of the lease or upon the commercial tenant’s defaulting on payment of rent or other lease terms.1 A commercial landlord’s common law right to use “self-help” to reenter his property peaceably to evict a defaulting tenant or other person with no right of possession...

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New York Ave. Car Wash, LLC v. Aqua Car Wash and Detailing, LLC

New York Ave. Car Wash, LLC v Aqua Car Wash & Detailing, Inc. 2005 NY Slip Op 07937 Decided on October 24, 2005 Appellate Division, Second Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports. Decided on October 24, 2005 SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK APPELLATE DIVISION : SECOND JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT A. GAIL PRUDENTI, P.J. HOWARD MILLER...

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Default Clauses: Better Drafting Can Forestall Problems

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John Desiderio Attorneys are making too much money litigating disputes between commercial landlords and tenants. Even the most frequently used “standard form” leases permit tenants to stall and strangle property owners.1 And these same leases leave tenants without proper recourse when property owners fail to follow written commitments.2 Instead of blaming a judge, a landlord, or a tenant, it is time that practitioners recognize, to paraphrase Shakespeare, that the fault is not in the judicial...

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Dov Treiman Named Chairperson of Apartment Law Insider Board of Advisors

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Enforcing the Contract – Obtaining Down Payment on Specific Performance

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio At the pinnacle of real estate law, the real estate closing may be the most basic and common real estate experience, but the familiarity ends once a provision of the contract of sale has been breached. Inspired by the number of telephone calls, e-mails, and general correspondence received from practitioners who have requested guidance in enforcing a contract to purchase or sell real estate, this article addresses recurring issues that arise again and...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Named to Board of Editors Commercial Leasing Law and Strategy

Commercial Leasing Law & Strategy Board of Editors Members:DALE ALLINSON, Certilman Balin Adler & Hyman, LLP, East Meadow, NYADAM LEITMAN BAILEY , Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.,New York JEANNE BANKA, Daoust, Vukovich, Baker-Sigal, Banka, LLP, TorontoGLENN A. BROWNE, Braun, Browne & Associates, P.C., Riverwoods, ILELIZABETH COOPER, The Staubach Company., Washington, DCWILLIAM R. CROWE, Mayo, Gilligan & Zito, LLP, Hartford, CTMICHELLE R. CURTIS, Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker, P.A., Rockville, MDD. ALBERT DASPIN, Holland & Knight, LLP, Oakbrook Terrace, ILIRA FIERSTEIN, Seyfarth Shaw, LLP,...

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New Home Sweet Home for Disabled Man

New York Daily News

By: Lore Croghan April 23rd, 2006 THERE’S A HAPPY ENDING in sight for a disabled Holocaust survivor who has been living as a virtual prisoner in his Brooklyn home. After two years of legal wrangling, tomorrow Chaim Indig, who uses a wheelchair, is set to move into a handicapped-accessible co-op in Premier House – a luxury Midwood building whose board initially had turned him away. “He indicated he’s excited about the move,” said his daughter, Shevie Sinensky, who must speak for...

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Right of First Refusal: In Pursuit of an Effective, Litigation-Proof Provison

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio Since biblical Abraham’s purchase of his wife Sarah’s burial plot in Hebron from Ephron the Hittite, the transfer of land has been creative, predictable and repetitive.1 Despite the familiarity of such transactions, land transfers have been the subject of an inordinate amount of litigation. Of course, the importance and value of land and the necessity for shelter assists in explaining many of the battles. However, an analysis and survey of right-of-first-refusal litigation,...

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Tenant Protection: Suggestions Offer Remedies for Harsh Provisions

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio During the last five years, the pendulum of commercial leasing has begun to swing. At common law, the doctrine of “caveat emptor” governed commercial leasing. By the 1970’s, New York courts, relying on equitable principles, began to carve out exceptions to caveat emptor. 1 Equity gained greater currency and judicial decisions softened commercial lease provisions that potentially endangered or evicted tenants.2 Recently, New York courts at all levels have moved away from...

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German beer garden owner: Eviction case had racial tones

The Villager

By: Gerard Flynn April 4th, 2007 A recent settlement reached between Sylvester Schneider, owner of the East Village bar and restaurant Zum Schneider, and his landlord has left Schneider with mixed feelings about the case and the plaintiffs who were trying to force him out of his space. The case concluded in State Supreme Court on Thurs., March 15. Under the terms of the agreement, Schneider’s lease will be extended until 2021, he will not have to reduce his sidewalk...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails in Getting Clients’ Application for Attorneys’ Fees Awarded

James Sykes, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, -against- RFD Third Avenue I Associates, LLC. Defendant- Respondent April 10, 2007 Trevor Davis, et al., Defendants. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. , New York, for appellants. Background: Purchasers of real property sought to recover legal fees following release of monies held in escrow in connection with litigation against sellers. The Supreme Court, New York County, Louis Crespo, Special Referee, denied fee application, and purcha s- ers appealed. Holding: The Supreme Court, Appellate Division, held that...

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The Race to Erase Recording Mistakes

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Jackie Halpern Weinstein To protect the integrity of this nation’s property transfer system, the robo-signing controversy must result in a better system of transferring property and loans. Beneath this public debacle exists another old timer in the world of recording: property transfer mistakes. Improper, mistaken, or wrongly executed and indexed instruments have existed since the birth of the first recording system and have had our courts both provide and fail to deliver justice for the...

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Jackie Halpern Weinstein Speaks in the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building Before Manhattan Community Board 10 on Zoning and Land Use Issues With Respect to the Redevelopment of New York City’s Harlem

Jackie Halpern Weinstein Speaks in the Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. State Office Building Before Manhattan Community Board 10 on Zoning and Land Use Issues With Respect to the Redevelopment of New York City’s Harlem.

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Adverse Possession: Veto Confirmed Existing Law on ‘Claim of Right’

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio This past session, the New York State Legislature passed a bill1 that would have effectively eliminated the doctrine of adverse possession as we know it today. However, on Aug. 28, Governor Spitzer vetoed the bill noting the “radical impact” it would have had on New York’s adverse possession law.2 For now at least, the law remains unchanged. The bill provided that a possessor’s “actual knowledge” of the true owner of the property...

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NMP Group LLC v. Fammes Group LLC

At an Appellate Term of the Supreme Court, First Department Held at the Court House, Borou.tof Manhattan, City of New York, on the 18th  day of October 2007 Present: – Hon. Douglas E. McKeon, P.J., “William J. Davis, “Martin Schoenfeld, Justices NMP – Group LLC, Petitioner-Landlord-Respondent -against- Fammes Group, LLC, Respondent-Appellant N.Y. County Clerk’s # 570783/07 N.Y. Civil L&T Index #71998/07 ORDER ON MOTION The above named respondent-appellant having by notice of motion, dated October 10, 2007, moved for an...

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Appellate Term, First Department Affirms Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Victory and Award of Attorney fees in hotly contested non-primary residence case

542 East 14th Street v. Lee Supreme Court, Appellate Division: First Department — N.Y.S.2d —- — N.Y.S.2d —-, 2007 WL 4571088 (N.Y.Sup.App.Term), 2007 N.Y. Slip Op. 27540 (Cite as: — N.Y.S.2d —-) 542 East 14th Street LLC v. Lee N.Y.Sup.App.Term,2007. Supreme Court, Appellate Term, New York, First Department. 542 EAST 14TH STREET LLC, Petitioner-Landlord-Appellant, .v. Charlene LEE, Respondent-Tenant-Respondent. Dec. 28, 2007. Background: Landlord commenced holdover summary proceeding against tenant, seeking possession of tenant’s rent-stabilized apartment on ground of nonprimary residence....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves Harlem Businesses From Eviction

One of the largest real estate developers in the United States, Kimco Realty, sent termination and demolition notices to the business owners who worked in Harlem’s longest building. All of the commercial tenant’s leases either had expired or had demolition clauses allowing the developer to evict the commercial tenants. The building in question was one block west of the cultural epicenter of Harlem on world-famous 125th Street, home of numerous institutions key to African American culture, notably the Apollo Theatre....

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“Standing” to Sue Sham Condo, Co-Op Sponsors Changed

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio Kramer v. W10Z/515 Real Estate Ltd. Partnership, 1 a recent decision of the Appellate Division, First Department, is a case of great importance to purchasers of new condominium and cooperative apartment units. In a sweeping opinion, the court completely overhauled, if not expressly overruled, a line of its own decisions that appeared to effectively bar any private suit against condo and co-op sponsors who make fraudulent representations in offering plans for newly...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains One of the Largest Buyouts in New York History for a Residential Tenant: Total Value Equaled 1.4 Million for 400-Square-Foot Studio Apartment

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains One of the Largest Buyouts in New York History for a Residential Tenant Total Value Equaled 1.4 Million For 400-Square-Foot Studio Apartment.

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When Is It Company? When a Crowd?

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman With Governor Paterson’s recent announcement that New York would accord administrative recognition to same-sex unions Adam Leitman Bailey solemnized in jurisdictions that recognize such unions, notably in every jurisdiction with which New York shares a border except for Pennsylvania, the focus is once again placed on nontraditional families. In the groundbreaking decision of Braschi v. Stahl, the New York Court of Appeals granted administrative recognition to nontraditional families for purposes of rent regulation.1...

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Curtain Closing on Amato Opera

New York Law Journal

By: Justin Smulison January 28th, 2009 The curtain will close on the Amato Opera’s long run at 319 Bowery as the company’s theater has been sold for $3.7 million. Anthony Amato said that he had purchased the four-story, near-7,500 square foot building, which had formerly been a storage facility for restaurant equipment, in 1961 for around $20,000. He ran the opera house with his wife, Sally, who passed away in 2000. Now 88 years old, Mr. Amato will be semi-retired. However, he...

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Tenants Sue Landlord in Attempt to Force Repairs

The New York Sun

By: Candace Taylor August 21st, 2008 Tenants in a Pinnacle Group building on Riverside Drive and 144th Street are suing their landlord, claiming that the six-story rental building is in need of extensive repairs. The building, at 668 Riverside Dr., is set to undergo a conversion into condominiums, but the tenants are claiming that “mold, constantly leaking pipes, rotting wood, fallen ceilings, and dangerous electrical environments” must be fixed before the conversion can begin. The Pinnacle Group is a large...

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Title Litigation: Expense of Theft Prevention Dwarfed by the Cost of Fraud

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey At the start of this new millennium, the most effective means to rob a bank no longer includes the use of a gun. The real estate closing table has replaced the gun and mask as the most favored and effective tool of theft from financial institutions. As the New York Times reported on Oct. 19, 2008, the Federal Bureau of Investigation declared its inability to properly investigate the number of property and mortgage fraud claims, due...

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The Most Crucial Commercial Lease Cases

Law Journal Newsletters

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman For almost two years, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. have been compiling a list of the greatest commercial leasing cases of all time. The authors have always been fans “greatest” lists—there being something special about choosing the best among so many great people, entertainers, athletes, composers, or, in our case, cases that have had the greatest effect on leasing law. “Greatest” lists permeate our entire culture and are the basis for...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails at Appellate Term Ordering Eviction of Commercial Business That Failed to Properly Follow Lease Requirements in Renewing Lease

In 221-06 Merrick Blvd. Associates, LLC v. Crescent Electric Acquisition Corporation, in a decision that came down on July 14, 2009, the Appellate Term for the Second, Eleventh, and Thirteenth Judicial Districts brought a new level of analysis to the age-old question about tenants’ renewal options in commercial leases. While well established principles hold tenants strictly to the requirements for the exercise of the option, a line of authority permits equitable considerations to override the tenant’s indolence. Under this new...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Victorious in Case of First Impression Before Appellate Division Involving Ailing Relative Defense to Primary Residence Action

By Noeleen G. Walder July 9th, 2009   Temporary Relocation to Aid Aging Parents Found No Basis for Eviction From Rent-Stabilized Unit A landlord cannot evict a mother who left her teenaged daughter behind in her rent-stabilized New York City apartment while she relocated to California to care for her ailing parents, a state appellate court has ruled. In 2002, after Charlene Lee had spent almost two years tending to the medical needs of her 80- year-old father and her...

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Chinatown Landowners Keep Their Property Despite Two Purported Written Contracts of Sale

When the Chins first came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., they had what can accurately be described as double trouble. As owners of one of the very few When the Chins first came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., they had what can accurately be described as double trouble. As owners of one of the very few vacant lots in Chinatown, it was said they had contracted to sell their property to two separate people., it was said they had contracted...

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Condo Board’s Long Legal Nightmare Is Over

Habitat Magazine

August 10, 2017 By Bill Norris Aug. 10, 2017 — Courts rule that sponsor is responsible for faulty construction. Construction defects can have a long shelf life. As the condominium board at 50 Madison Avenue has learned, the legal ramifications of faulty construction can live on for a decade, or more. But based on a new court ruling, this board has reason to hope that its long legal nightmare is finally over. In a 2009 decision, an appellate court ruled...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Ranked By Chambers USA 2009 As One Of New York’s Leading Real Estate Lawyers

Adam Leitman Bailey has been ranked by Chambers as one of New York’s leading lawyers for real estate in the 2009 edition of Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business. Chambers USA 2009 called Adam Leitman Bailey “a tenacious and confident litigator who is quick-witted in court and respected by the judges.” Adam Leitman Bailey,P.C. is one of only two New York real estate firms with fewer than 20 attorneys to receive a Chambers ranking. Chambers and Partners is a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails at Appellate Term Ordering Eviction of Commercial Business That Failed to Properly Follow Lease Requirements in Renewing Lease

In 221-06 Merrick Blvd. Associates, LLC v. Crescent Electric Acquisition Corporation, in a decision that came down on July 14, 2009, the Appellate Term for the Second, Eleventh, and Thirteenth Judicial Districts brought a new level of analysis to the age-old question about tenants’ renewal options in commercial leases. While well established principles hold tenants strictly to the requirements for the exercise of the option, a line of authority permits equitable considerations to override the tenant’s indolence. Under this new...

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1641 Park Avenue Associates v. Irma Graziani

CIVIL COURT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK: HOUSING PART P Index No. 81391/05 1641 PARK AVENUE ASSOCIATES, Petitioner, -against- Irma Graziani, Respondent-tenant, Lea Wolfburg, Respondent-occupant. After trial on the underlying holdover proceeding, and in consideration of all testimonial and documentary evidence adduced therein, the court finds and decides as follows: Respondent Irma Graziani concedes that she lives elsewhere and, before trial, had withdrawn any possessory claim for the premises, apartment #28 at 101 East 1l6 street, New York,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Closes Sale of 901 Broadway for $24.6 Million

New York Law Journal

By: Justin Smulison September 16, 2009 The five-story building at 901 Broadway has been sold to a Spanish investor for $24.6 million, or $1,716 per square foot. The landmarked, 14,336-square-foot building, was the original home of the Lord & Taylor Dry Goods Store, and has stood in the Flatiron District for 142 years. A partner at Adam Leitman Bailey, represented the buyer, an entity owned by a private Spanish investor. Wachtel & Masyr partner Morris Missry represented the seller, Thor...

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Making New Law, Appellate Division Finds That Condo Board Not Liable for Repairing Newly Constructed Building and Finds That Obligation to Repair Remains with Sponsor; Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Victorious at Trial Level and Appeal

On November 8, 2009, the Appellate Division ruled that a building’s developer and not a condominium board shall be responsible for making repairs to a newly constructed building. In Lorne v. 50 Madison Avenue LLC, a unit owner sued the board of directors for failing to remediate a construction defect. A unanimous Appellate Division dismissed the condominium board from the lawsuit while determining that the sponsor was the proper party for the lawsuit. It should be noted that this is...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails: Court Rules That Board of Managers Has No Duty to Repair Owners’ Unit

by Scott E. Mollen Condominiums—Construction Defects—Suit Against Sponsor, Board and Manager—Alteration Agreements—Res Judicata A DEFENDANT CONDOMINIUM board of managers (board), individual board members and a defendant management company (manager), moved to dismiss a complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(1); (5) and (7). The board and individual board member defendants also sought costs, sanctions and attorney fees. The plaintiff opposed the motions and cross-moved for sanctions against the defendants and their counsel and for attorney fees. This action is “the latest in...

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Preventing Fraud at a Real Estate Closing

Mortgage Banking Magazine

By Adam Leitman Bailey There are some simple yet effective steps that can be taken to avert fraud at a real estate closing. At the start of the 21st century, the most effective means to rob a bank no longer includes the use of a gun. The real estate closing table has replaced the gun and mask as the most favored and effective tool of theft from financial institutions. As The New York Times reported on Oct. 19, 2008, the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Trial Discovering Fraud by Landlord to Thwart Owner’s Use Case

A twenty-five year tenant of an Upper West Side townhouse, together with her husband, is keeping her apartment after a three-year litigation war defending a personal use holdover proceeding brought by her landlord. The crux of the landlords’ claim was that they needed the apartment so that their daughter had somewhere to stay on her occasional visits to the city. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients were the only remaining tenants in the townhouse after others died, were either bought out,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Named Super Lawyer, Corporate Counsel Edition

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is pleased to announce that Adam Leitman Bailey has been selected for inclusion in the May/June 2010 Law Politics’ Super Lawyers, Corporate Counsel Edition. In 2008, Super Lawyers launched Super Lawyers, Corporate Counsel Edition. Published six times a year, this magazine includes nationwide listings of attorneys selected by Super Lawyers in business-related practice areas, and is sent to 25,000 corporate counsel and CEOs.

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Board of Managers of St. Tropez Condominium v. Kashani Corp.

Board of Managers of St. Tropez Condominium v. Kashani Corp. Slip Copy N.Y.Sup. 2010. Slip Copy2010 WL 2089347, 2010 N.Y. Slip Op. 50939(U) This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports.   Board of Managers of the St. Tropez Condominium, Petitioner-Landlord-Respondent, v. Kashani Corporation d/b/a Take 6 Boutique, Respondent-Tenant-Appellant. 570200/10. Appellate Term of the Supreme Court, First Department Decided on May 26, 2010 Digest-Index Classification:Landlord and Tenant- -Eviction–Failure to Comply with Stipulation Settling Underlying...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Lands Largest Settlement in New York History for a Restaurant Opened Less Than Seven Months

New York Law Journal

Restaurant Negotiates Deals Of $2.5M in Crane Collapse By Jeff Storey June 29, 2016 Owners of a recently opened restaurant shut down when the collapse of construction crane heavily damaged its building have won almost $2.5 million in settlements. The incident occurred on March 15, 2008 at 303 East 51st St. where a condominium was being built. Along with property damage, seven people were killed, and more than a dozen injured. No one was injured at the Crave Ceviche Bar...

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Navigating Buyers and Developers Through New Construction Deals

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio In late 2008, the real estate sky had started to fall and fall quickly. As a result of the loss of financing and wages, many purchasers in contract to buy a unit in a newly constructed building were either no longer able or willing to close on their units. To make matters worse, the credit markets had been greatly curtailing the flow of money into the hands of developers from purchasers. In...

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Chambers and Partners Selects Adam Leitman Bailey as a Leading Real Estate Lawyer for its Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2010

In its review Chambers USA 2010 praised Adam Leitman Bailey: Adam Leitman Bailey of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is highlighted for his landlord and tenant litigation practice. Interviewees predict that both his firm and his standing in the marketplace will only continue to grow; and that clients call him “an extraordinary practitioner who gets great results,” saying: “His ability to anticipate things before they happen has opened my eyes.” From the 74,425 lawyers practicing law in New York, Adam Leitman...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Assists Luna Park in Closing on $68 Million Loan & Grants; Cooperative Obtains Record $21 Million Grant from City, State, and Federal Government

Representing the second largest cooperative in the entire world, Luna Park Housing Corporation needed $68 million in connection with a major capital project that includes replacing all of the brick facades throughout the entire project, replacing all windows with new energy efficient windows, and replacing all of the building’s roofs. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was hired not only to represent the corporation in closing the largest loan in New York that year but we had worked with city, state and...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Landmark Victories Using a Forgotten and Overlooked Federal Law: Judge Rules Condo Deals Come Under Federal Law; a ‘Game Changer’ Decision

In late 2008, the real estate sky had started to fall and fall quickly. As a result of the loss of financing and wages, many purchasers in contract to buy a unit in a newly constructed building were either no longer able or willing to close on their units. To make matters worse, the credit markets had been greatly curtailing the flow of money into the hands of developers from purchasers. In March 2008, one of the last outposts of...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails Against Trump Soho on Fraud Claims; Settlement Provides Millions of Dollars to Clients

The New York Post

“They cried “fraud!” — and now, a bunch of well-heeled apartment hunters will get a staggering 90 percent of their deposits back on posh pads they intended to buy at the troubled Trump SoHo condo-hotel because they relied on the developers’ “deceptive” sales figures.  In a federal lawsuit settled yesterday, woulda-been buyers of 10 condos — including former French soccer star Olivier Dacourt — will get back 90 percent of $3.16 million (Not part of settlement total number is $5.197)...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Ranked One of New York City’s Best Places to Work

Bonuses for all Most law firms have profit-sharing only among partners, but 10-year-old Adam Leitman takes a different track. Every staffer at this boutique real estate firm­—including associates, paralegals and janitors‑shares the fruits of its success. To ensure transparency, an independent accountant tabulates the firm’s quarterly earnings. “Everybody sees all year what the bonuses will be,” says founder Adam Leitman Bailey. Alice Davidson, a receptionist, received her bonus after only six months on the job. “It was a pleasant surprise,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Named to the 95th Edition of the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has been named to the 95th Edition of the Bar Register of Preeminent Lawyers. The Martindale-Hubbell Bar Register is limited to only the most distinguished law practices. For over 90 years, the Bar Register has been a unique guide to the legal community’s most eminent professionals. It includes only those select law practices that have earned the highest rating in the Martindale-Hubbell Law Directory and have been designated by their colleagues as preeminent in their field.

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John M. Desiderio Rated by Martindale-Hubbell as “AV Preeminent”

John M. Desiderio is rated by Martindale-Hubbell as “AV Preeminent” signifying the “Highest Possible Rating in Both Legal Ability and Ethical Standards.” Mr. Desiderio has been rated “AV Preeminent” by Martindale-Hubbell for over 25 years. John M. Desiderio is proud to receive an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the country’s preeminent lawyer rating service. An “AV” rating signifies an attorney that has “achieved the highest levels of professional skill and integrity.” John M. Desiderio’s “AV” rating is based on peer reviews...

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Appellate Division Finds That Equity Will Not Intervene to Relieve Commercial Tenant of Its Failure to Timely Exercise a Lease Renewal Option: Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Victorious

A commercial tenant sought information on how to exercise the renewal option in its lease. When informed by the landlord to the follow the renewal provision in the lease, tenant failed to do so until after the option date had expired. When the landlord brought a holdover, the tenant argued that its failure to renew was excusable and that equity should intervene to relieve it of its failure to timely renew. After a trial, the civil court held for the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes it Possible For Over One Hundred Homesteaders To Overcome Opposition and Obtain Home Ownership

The Dysfunctional City As a result of the urban decay that plagued New York City in the 1970’s, eleven old tenement buildings in Manhattan’s Lower East Side were abandoned by their owners and became the property of the city through tax foreclosure proceedings. The city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) did not have the resources to maintain the buildings, left them vacant, and boarded them up. The buildings soon became havens for drug dealers and vandals who stripped...

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NYC Landlord Wants Money for Back Rent from Collector Who Auctioned off Suit John Lennon Wore

Maclean's

By: Jennifer Peltz January 16th, 2011 NEW YORK, N.Y. – A New York City landlord has a message for the collector who recently sold the suit John Lennon wore on the cover of the Beatles’ “Abbey Road” album: You never give me your money. The seller’s former landlord has sued the gallery that auctioned the late Beatle’s suit for $46,000, trying to get at the proceeds to satisfy a rent debt. Braswell Galleries was told before the Jan. 1 sale...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Is Thanked by the Board of Directors in Habitat Magazine for Negotiating a Laundry Room Lease: Coming Clean on Contracts

Habitat Magazine

February, 2011 The Situation. The building had a central laundry room that desperately needed renovation. The space, which had been serviced by the same company for the last decade, was dirty and dusty, with walls and flooring showing obvious signs of extended wear and tear. STEP 1 Preparing. Board director Joan Tedeschi did more than most to prepare herself for the job. She took a seminar at the Council of New York Cooperatives and Condominiums given by Adam Leitman Bailey...

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Queens Newly Constructed Condominium Receives $900,000 Including Donation of Apartment to Settle Claims for Complete Repairs to Building

The board of a 66-unit luxury new construction condominium in Queens hired Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. after the board’s numerous attempts at trying to compel the condominium’s sponsor to remediate the serious facade, plumbing, and leaking conditions failed. Adding insult to injury, the condominium’s sponsor was trying to force the board to purchase the residential unit designated as the resident managers unit for an inflated price financed by the sponsor, forcing the board to pay an unconscionable interest rate on...

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Thanks to the Beatles, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Uses Aggressive and Creative Tactic to Recover Money Judgment for Landlord

The landlord, represented by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., started an eviction case against a delinquent tenant. The landlord prevailed; the tenant was evicted and the landlord received a money judgment in the amount of rent owed.  It was determined that the tenant was unemployed and had no discoverable assets. After doing due diligence, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. learned that the tenant planned on selling a suit worn by John Lennon and they took action to recover money...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Selected to the American College of Real Estate Lawyers (ACREL)

Adam Leitman Bailey has been elected a Fellow of the American College of Real Estate Lawyers recognizing national preeminence in the practice of real estate law. From ACREL’s website: The American College of Real Estate Lawyers is the premier organization of U.S. real estate lawyers. Admission is by invitation only after a rigorous screening process. ACREL’s distinguished, nationally-known lawyers have been elected to fellowship for their outstanding legal ability, experience and high standards of professional and ethical conduct in the...

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Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price

Written by Adam Leitman Bailey Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price is now available in bookstores nationwide!To order Finding The Uncommon Deal:  A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price on Amazon.com please visit: http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Uncommon-Deal-Explains-Possible/dp/0470943661/   Finding the Uncommon Deal lands the #1 spot on the New York Times Best Sellers list! Click here to view the Index Click here to view a...

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Real Estate Bisnow writes about the importance of three Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. cases in 2011

Real Estate Bisnow

Well-known NYC lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey practices real estate law, but his cases have an impact beyond CRE. Today, we take a look at three of his firm’s victories—and why they matter. Adam Bailey, March 2012 Adam (above, speaking at a recent Baruch alumni panel with Cassidy Turley’s Stephen Pearlman and BlackRock’s Barry Ziering) calls himself a natural underdog, having grown up lower-middle class in Bayside, Queens and LA. “Starving is a great motivator,” he says. He reps Fortune 500...

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Adam Leitman Bailey’s Home Buying Book Finding the Uncommon Deal Becomes Number 1 New York Times Bestseller

The New York Times

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Cooperative Landlord Wins Eviction In Non-Primary Residence Case: Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Catches Fraud

The board of directors of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a Mitchell Lama cooperative, faced an overwhelming problem: they suspected that the shareholder of record of a unit in the cooperative was not residing in the unit as her primary residence. However, all of the cooperative’s documentation – the stock certificate, proprietary lease, and household income affidavits – indicated that the shareholder did, in fact, live in the apartment. However, given Adam Leitman Bailey’s extensive experience with non-primary residence cases,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Attorneys Secure a Surprising Victory in Manhattan Supreme Court

The owner of a newly-constructed hotel was shocked to learn that a mechanic’s lien in the amount of $100,000 was recorded on his property by a subcontractor with whom there was no privity of contract. The subcontractor alleged that the general contractor on the construction project did not fully compensate him for work done installing an HVAC unit. Taking over the case from a previous attorney, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. immediately moved in court to amend its petition to discharge...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves Large Cooperative Building From Having Entire Election Overturned and New Board of Directors Instated

Disgruntled shareholders in cooperatives can go to great lengths to challenge the decision-making of the board of directors. In one of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C’s latest cases, a shareholder, whose intention was to put his own team of individuals on the board, brought a proceeding in Supreme Court to overturn the latest election. The shareholder asserted several allegations of electoral fraud and conspiracy, despite the fact that an independent election committee certified the election as fair. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Represents Developer in Successful Settlement of Condominium Dispute

The board of managers and all unit owners in a newly constructed eight-story condominium agreed to accept an all cash $178,500 offer from the building’s developer in full settlement of all possible claims of the board and unit owners for alleged defects in the construction of the building’s roof. The board had initially sought a much larger sum for what it claimed it would cost to do a full roof replacement. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was then retained to represent...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Appeal for Hotel Developer; Demolition Termination Clause Not Tolled When Commercial Tenant Fails to Satisfy the Requirements for Obtaining a Preliminary Injunction

In this case, the landlord, in accordance with the lease, served the tenant with a 12-month notice of termination based upon the landlord’s intention to demolish the building. The tenant brought an action in the Supreme Court and moved for a preliminary injunction to halt the running of the notice. Among other things, the tenant claimed that the prior landlord had prematurely engaged in renovations and that waived the present landlord’s right to demolish and that the landlord (whose earlier...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails in Favor of Rejected Cooperative Purchaser

In a case successfully prosecuted by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., a foreign national who had her application for ownership in a tiny cooperative apartment building rejected now stands to recover a substantial down payment with nine (9) percent interest from the date of the rejection. The owner of the unit claimed that the prospective tenant had sabotaged the interview because she had changed her mind about buying the unit because of some ambiguity as to who could occupy the apartment. ...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Discusses How to Buy a Home in New York City

NBC Nightly News

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves Client From Buying Unit that Would One Day Have Lost The Unit’s Windows

New development transactions pose an entirely different set of risks, benefits, and logistical challenges than a traditional re-sale. Many times, Purchasers enter a contract for a Unit that is not yet built, in a building without a financial history and potentially not yet cleared by institutional lenders for closing. These factors often cause confusion around due diligence and delays when it comes to closing on the Unit. Two first-time homebuyers retained Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to represent their interest in...

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Lotus Developer Settles Lawsuit

The Real Deal

By: David Jones July 01, 2011 The developer of the Lotus condominium in Williamsburg has agreed to hand over 10 apartments to the condo board, settling a private lawsuit and investigation by the attorney general amid complaints about structural defects at the building and thousands of dollars in unpaid common charges. Developer Steven Kohn signed a “confession of judgment” at Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office June 3, giving the 10 unsold apartments to the condo board, according to documents obtained...

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Judge Rules Ex-Firefighter Cannot Sue Over Mosque

By: Colin Moynihan July 10th, 2011 A Manhattan judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a former New York City firefighter who is trying to stop the construction of an Islamic community center in Lower Manhattan. The former firefighter, Timothy Brown, sought to overturn a decision by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission to deny landmark status for a 150-year-old building on Park Place that would be demolished to make way for the center. The building, which once housed a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Forces Sponsor to Fix Newly Constructed Building and Donate Ten Units to Settle Case

In late 2006, purchasers were eager to buy units in a “luxury” new construction condominium being built in the heart of trendy Williamsburg. The purchasers closed on 19 of the 29 units (the condominium’s sponsor retained ownership of the last ten units). Shortly after closings began, unit owners began to realize that despite the fancy marketing, the building was rampant with construction defects. Myriad calls and letters to the condominium’s sponsor, and its principal, resulted in no response to the...

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Brokerage Law: Appellate Division Reinstates Unjust Enrichment Claim Against Wrongdoers

Taking over the matter from another law firm where a commercial brokerage firm had its complaint for various causes of action, including unjust enrichment, dismissed as against all defendants except a shell limited liability company with no assets, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has achieved reinstatement of the complaint against two of the wrongdoers for unjust enrichment and the possibility of moving against the two other wrongdoers in the future. In Georgia Malone & Co. v. Rieder, et. al., Malone &...

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Real Estate Developer Settles Claim by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Client That Real Estate Investment Offerings Violated New York Securities Laws

An investor client of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. invested several million dollars in a number of separate real estate investment properties owned or controlled by a single real estate developer. The developer represented to the investor that the offerings were private in nature and not subject to the registration filing requirements prescribed for public offerings of real estate investment securities by the Martin Act, New York State’s “blue sky” law. Over time, the client came to believe that the developer...

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Lawyers: You CAN Recover Cash When Condo Sponsors Underfund Reserves

Habitat Magazine

By Adam Lietman Bailey Rainy Day Money – Condo Style Reserve Fund Obligations  Do you live in a condominium conversion? Are your reserves underfunded? As a condo board you may be able to recover millions of dollars from your sponsor. Sponsors of condo conversions really have only one material obligation: to provide sufficient money for a reserve fund. If they don’t leave large enough reserves, condominiums may not have sufficient capital to perform necessary remedial construction work, leaving buyers with...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevailed Into Allowing Family Into Cooperative Unit Despite Cooperative’s Claim That Subletting Rules Denied Entrance

A Murray Hill co-op board tried to block a son, daughter-in-law, and grandchild from moving back into their family home. When the movers came and the building staff was instructed not to let the family’s belongings into the elevator, the family called Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. The firm’s client had several generations living together in neighboring units of this Murray Hill Co-op so that the grandparents could help raise the children. When the son and his wife had a baby,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Discusses Loan Forgiveness Deals on Fox News

Fox News

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How a Tactfully Aggressive Litigation Strategy Defeated a Succession Claim

In Lev Sehav Menahem Mendel S.F. Management LLC. v. Edward Faust, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. succeeded at trial in evicting a tenant who claimed inheritance rights (“succession”) to a rent-controlled apartment in Washington Heights. Legal Issue To establish succession, a deceased tenant’s close family member must prove that s/he lived in the apartment with the tenant for at least two years prior to the tenant’s death. Facts When the tenant of a rent-controlled apartment passed away, her...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Victory: W Downtown Ruling Could Be Last Word on ILSA Law in NY

The Real Deal

By: David Jones August 24th, 2011 A U.S. District Court judge ruled against Joseph Moinian’s Moinian Group in a closely watched escrow dispute with buyers at the W New York Downtown Hotel and Residences, a decision that lawyers say further establishes the applicability of the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act in New York condominium sales. Judge Robert Patterson rejected a motion to dismiss the case by the Moinian Group, which developed the 217-unit hotel and condo at 123 Washington...

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Congratulations to the Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Attorneys Who Were Named Super Lawyers and Rising Stars for 2011

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A Check on Housing Recovery

CNBC

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Refunds for Buyers at Homeowners Association Development for Construction Delays

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. assisted a married couple who had contracted to purchase a residence at the Harbour Point at Arverne by the Sea development in Queens, which was beset by construction delays. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. contacted by the couple nearly one year after the home was supposed to be delivered under the sales contract, just after the developer, Benjamin-Beechwood Dunes, LLC, had sent the couple a proposed contract amendment that would have pushed the estimated delivery date back...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Achieves Large Financial Settlement Allowing 16-Unit Brooklyn Condominium to Repair Faulty Newly Constructed Building

Units were marketed as modern luxury condominium units in the heart of Williamsburg. Purchasers began closing on 15 of the 16 units in the two adjoining buildings beginning at the end of 2007. Shortly after closings began, unit owners began to realize that despite the fancy marketing, the building was rampant with construction defects. Unlike many other condominium sponsors facing this situation, this sponsor did return phone calls and did agree to repair the work. However, the board quickly learned...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Featured On HSBC & NBC’s Panel Discussion On “Perspectives On Global Real Estate”

On October 24th, 2011 Adam Leitman Bailey participated in a panel discussion on “Perspectives on Global Real Estate,” presented by HSBC and NBC at the SoHo House in New York City.  Other panelists were Michael Chen of Bond New York Properties, LLC, Brian Lewis of Halstead Property and Constance Mitchell Ford, head of the Global Real Estate and Property bureau of The Wall Street Journal.

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Board Collects Common Charges Without Judicial Intervention by Novel Agreement and Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure

With the recent economic downturn, condominium boards have been plagued by unit owner common charge defaults. With fewer unit owners paying their common charges, boards are faced with the prospect of increasing common charges in order to collect the deficit from those unit owners in good standing– unless they can collect the unpaid common charges from the delinquent unit owners. Most boards who attempt to collect common charges from delinquent unit owners are faced with essentially three choices – enter...

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The Real Deal’s 7th Annual Forum: The Great Debate at Avery Fisher Hall

On November 16, 2011 Adam Leitman Bailey was a featured debater at The Real Deal’s 7th Annual Forum. Adam Leitman Bailey debated Stuart Saft of Dewey & LeBoeuf LLP on whether too much litigation is hurting real estate in New York City. Other debaters were William Macklowe of William Macklowe Company, John Catsimatidis of Red Apple Group, Lockhart Steele of Curbed Network and Frederick Peters of Warburg Realty Partnership. The debate was moderated by CNBC Anchor Bill Griffeth. The event...

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Massey Knakal Multifamily Summit

On November 16, 2011 Adam Leitman Bailey was one of six participants at the Owners Roundtable session at the Massey Knakal Multifamily Summit. The other participants were Daniel Benedict of Benedict Realty, John Gilbert of Rudin Management, Larry Gluck of Stellar Management, Robert Nelson of Nelson Management Group and Richard Parkoff of The Parkoff Organization. Over 600 participants gathered to learn about and discuss the acquisition, disposition, financing and management of NYC area multifamily properties in today’s changing market. The...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevents Eviction of Tenant and Wins Damages and Attorney Fees using Federal Law Discrimination Statute

The client installed a room air conditioning unit through a brick exterior wall, a violation of its condominium’s rules. No formal application was made to do so, although client spoke with a Board member about the possible use of such a unit. The clients were served with a Notice to Cure in 2006 and consulted Adam Leitman Bailey, PC. Rather than wait to fight an eviction, the firm moved to stay further enforcement proceedings and brought an action based on...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins 26 out of 26 Eviction Cases in 2011 Involving Mitchell-Lama Occupants Brought Before the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development

The board of directors of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a Mitchell-Lama cooperative, consistently faces two overwhelming problems: they suspect either that the shareholders of record of certain units in the cooperative are not residing in the units as their primary residence, or that the shareholders of record of certain units have passed away or vacated the apartment and someone is living in the apartment who does not have the right to occupy it. However, given Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s...

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Colin Kaufman Receives Highest Rating From Martindale-Hubbell

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is proud to announce that Colin Kaufman has received an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the country’s preeminent lawyer rating service. An “AV” rating signifies an attorney that has “achieved the highest levels of professional skill and integrity.” Mr. Kaufman has now joined a very elite group of real estate litigation professionals. Colin Kaufman’s “AV” rating is based on peer reviews by members of the Bar and Judiciary. That means that the lawyers and judges with whom...

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Jeffrey Metz Receives Highest Rating from Martindale-Hubbell

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is proud to announce that Jeffrey Metz has received an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the country’s preeminent lawyer rating service. An “AV” rating signifies an attorney that has “achieved the highest levels of professional skill and integrity.” Mr. Metz has now joined a very elite group of real estate litigation professionals. Jeffrey Metz’s “AV” rating is based on peer reviews by members of the Bar and Judiciary. That means that the lawyers and judges he works...

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New York Observer: Power Broker, “He has built a remarkable law firm. I don’t think everyone understands that what he has done is a huge accomplishment”

The New York Observer

By Daniel Geiger February 21, 2012 Adam Leitman Bailey strode into the lobby of his lower Manhattan law firm dressed in a dark blue suit and blue shirt, his extended cuffs all but dangling from his jacket. No sartorial misstep, Mr. Bailey would explain. The cuffs protruded noticeably beyond his jacket sleeves for a reason. “It’s essential,” said Mr. Bailey, the attorney who last year garnered national attention as counselor for the Ground Zero mosque developer Sharif El-Gamal. “I’ve studied...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Drafts Residential Lease Agreements for Blumberg Forms

The Blumberg Excelsior

BlumbergExcelsior Introduces Comprehensive New Leases for Multi-Unit Apartments BlumbergExcelsior Inc., a leading supplier of online law forms, has introduced new comprehensive lease forms drafted by prominent real estate attorneys Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. These documents include: Lease for a Regulated (Stabilized Apartment) (56) Lease for an Unregulated Apartment in New York City (57) Apartment House Rules, Nationwide (58) Apartment House Rules, New York (58) Apartment House Rules, New Jersey (58) Apartment House Rules,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Claim of Adverse Possession for Title Company

In McMillan v. Village Plaza Homes, Inc., et. al., Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. won a Decision and Order granting summary judgment in favor of the insureds, in defeating the plaintiff’s claim of title by adverse possession to an eleven-inch strip of land on the southerly boundary line of the insureds’ property in Queens County, New York. Despite the plaintiff’s claims that she planted flowers and vegetables along a fence on the insureds’ property for the requisite period of time to...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes New Law in the Area of Housing Discrimination

Under New York State law, it is an unlawful discriminatory practice to refuse to sell or rent a housing accommodation to any person because of race, national origin or age. The law has generally been applied to people who sought to rent or buy a housing unit. But does the state law apply to sellers of a cooperative apartment when a cooperative board denies their sale to otherwise qualified purchasers (on a pretextual basis) because they are elderly? And, in...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Achieves Winning Settlement on Behalf of Co-op Sellers in Landmark Housing Discrimination Case

In a case of first impression, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully represented the sellers of a cooperative apartment in a housing discrimination suit against their former co-op arising from the co-op’s failure to consent to a proposed sale of the apartment to elderly purchasers. When the co-op failed to approve the sale, despite the purchasers’ ample financial qualifications, the plaintiffs incurred damages because they were forced to find a new purchaser after the financial crisis struck and market conditions deteriorated....

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Landlord Wins Jury Trial Over Succession Claim and Then Judge Tosses Verdict; Appellate Term Comes to the Rescue and Affirms Jury Verdict and Eviction

Tenant Succession Claim In 2010, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Landlord & Tenant Department defended a succession case tried before a jury. It was a hard fought victory because the claimed successor, the nephew of a deceased rent controlled tenant, had lived with his aunt in a rent-controlled apartment for over thirty years. And while the “emotional” component was present between the two, there was an absence of the “financial commitment and interdependence” that the rent-controlled-succession regulation requires. The Jury Decides...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Reaffirms That a Time of the Essence Letter Must Detail the Consequences of a Failing to Appear at the Closing

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Second Department, New York. Ben NEHMADI, appellant-respondent, v. E. William DAVIS, respondent-appellant. May 23, 2012. Background: Purchaser brought action for specific performance of contract for sale of real property. Vendor moved for judgment on counterclaim that purchaser was in default and that vendor was entitled to retain down payment and for summary judgment. The Supreme Court, Nassau County, McCarty III, J., denied purchaser’s motion for leave to amend the complaint, denied vendor’s motion for summary judgment,...

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Chambers and Partners Selects Adam Leitman Bailey as a Leading Real Estate Lawyer for its Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business 2012

Chambers and Partners From the 142,499 lawyers practicing law in New York, Adam Leitman Bailey is only one of three real estate attorneys from firms with fewer than 26 attorneys to receive a Chambers ranking. In its review, Chambers USA 2012 praised Adam Leitman Bailey: Adam Leitman Bailey of Adam Leitman Bailey, PC is lauded for his hard work and responsiveness. He is an expert in real estate litigation. In previous years, Chambers has written: Adam Leitman Bailey is a...

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BlumbergExcelsior Introduces a Comprehensive New Sublease of a Cooperative Apartment in New York

The Blumberg Excelsior

June 12th, 2012 BlumbergExcelsior Inc., a leading supplier of online law forms, has introduced a new comprehensive sublease of a cooperative apartment in New York. The prominent real estate attorneys Adam Leitman Bailey, Leonard Ritz and Dov Treiman of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. drafted the sublease. In announcing the new form, Bob Blumberg, President and CEO, said, “BlumbergExcelsior has sold millions of lease forms since we opened shop in 1887. Leases continually evolve and this new cooperative sublease may be...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Wins NAREE ‘Best First Time Author’ Award

NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER ‘FINDING THE UNCOMMON DEAL’ IMPRESSES IN PRESTIGIOUS JOURNALISM COMPETITION Adam Leitman Bailey, Esq., one of New York City’s most successful and prominent real estate attorneys, has been honored with the National Association of Real Estate Editors’ (NAREE) “Best First Time Author” award for his book, Finding The Uncommon Deal: A Top New York Lawyer Explains How to Buy a Home for the Lowest Possible Price. Readers have praised Finding the Uncommon Deal (Jon Wiley &...

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The Eviction of a Night Club: Using Aggressive Lawyering, Creative Legal Theories and Impressive Evidence Results in Lease Surrender, Money Judgment and Payment of Legal Fees

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a property owner, was plunged into a case involving a popular night club where two high profile murders occurred while the New York Giants were celebrating their Super Bowl victory and many professional basketball players celebrated the end of the basketball strike. The landlord hired Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to evict the tenant for violating the lease. The difficulty of the eviction case was that although the commercial lease banned the restaurant from running a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Uses Social Media to Prove that Tenant Was Not Using Apartment as Primary Residence

Entitlement to a governmentally regulated apartment is strictly governed by statute and a tenant of such an apartment is required to utilize it as his or her primary residence in order to continue to receive the benefit. Recently, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was called upon to investigate and demonstrate that a granddaughter—who had previously been granted succession rights to an apartment through her grandparents’ residency—was not maintaining the apartment as her primary residence, and therefore, permanently forfeited her “rights” to...

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Real Estate Weekly Compares Adam Leitman Bailey’s Real Estate Practice to Apple’s Business

Real Estate Weekly

By: Liana Grey August 1st, 2012 Adam Leitman Bailey is to real estate law what the iPod is to Apple Last month, the real estate lawyer Adam Leitman Bailey received an award from the National Association of Real Estate Editors for his best-selling book, Finding the Uncommon Deal: A Top Lawyer Explains How to Buy A Home for the Lowest Possible Price. Much of the how-to guide, which took Bailey six years to write and covers everything from short sales...

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The 15 Most Fascinating New York Real Estate Cases of the 21st Century

The Commercial Observer

By: Daniel Geiger August 8th, 2012 The Case of the Loophole & The Greek Shipping Magnate Other than the J-51 lawsuit that upended Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, perhaps no other case demonstrates how the city’s real estate market can hinge so seismically on legal technicality. In 2008, the economy collapsed into a deep recession and the residential real estate market in the city came crashing down. The situation seemed especially dire and cruel for condo buyers who were under...

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Adam Leitman Bailey is named a “Super Lawyer”

Super Lawyers magazine identified the top attorneys in the New York Metro area based on an independent survey of nearly 90,000 attorneys. Out of the 280 real estate attorneys named Super Lawyer only 25 come from firms with less than 30 attorneys, including Adam Leitman Bailey. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased and includes independent...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Featured in “The Lawyers You Call 2012” Edition of The Commercial Observer

The Commercial Observer

By: Daniel Edward Rosen & Daniel Geiger, August 8th, 2012 Every year, one of the most important real estate publications, The Commercial Observer, chooses from the best real estate attorneys in New York to profile. This year’s issue titled “The Lawyers You Call 2012,” features Adam Leitman Bailey and one of the firm’s landmark cases. The Case of the Loophole & The Greek Shipping Magnate Other than the J-51 lawsuit that upended Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village, perhaps no...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Receives Highest Rating From Martindale Hubbell

Adam Leitman Bailey is proud to receive an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the country’s preeminent lawyer rating service. An “AV” rating signifies an attorney that has “achieved the highest levels of professional skill and integrity.” Adam Leitman Bailey has now joined a very elite group of real estate professionals. He is one of only two real estate lawyers in New York from a firm with less than 30 attorneys that has received an “AV” rating as well as recognition from...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Snatches Victory From The Jaws Of Defeat

The firm’s client is the operator of popular self-service storage facilities in Manhattan. After the plaintiff fell into arrears in the payment of her monthly storage fees, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client conducted a sale of the personal property maintained in plaintiff’s storage locker, as authorized by the New York Lien Law. The plaintiff sued to challenge the sale. In proceedings handled by another law firm, the court ruled that the firm’s client had failed to properly notice the sale...

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Congratulations to the Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Attorneys Who Were Named Super Lawyers and Rising Stars for 2012!

Super Lawyers Five Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys became part of the 223 New York metro area real estate attorneys to receive Super Lawyer honors. Law & Politics magazine identified the top 5 percent of attorneys in the New York Metro area based on an independent survey of nearly 90,000 attorneys. Sixty-two percent of the lawyers selected are from firms with more than 75 attorneys. The list was published by the magazine and in a supplement in The New York...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Protects Bank of America in Common Charge Lien Foreclosure Proceeding

In The Board of Managers of House Beautiful Condominium I v. Hong, et. al., Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully protected Bank of America N.A.’s security interest in a premises in Queens, New York, in defeating the plaintiff’s claim that the insured, Bank of America, was not the first mortgagee of record as is defined in § 339-z of New York’s Real Property Law. Despite the plaintiff’s allegation that a prior mortgage still open of record, although previously satisfied, is the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Ranked One of New York City’s Best Places to Work 2012 by Crain’s Magazine

Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. has been ranked as one of New York City’s Best Places to Work 2012 by Crain’s Magazine. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is one of only three law firms to receive this recognition. This year was more competitive than ever with Crain’s receiving more qualified applicants than any previous year. Out of all the applicants in New York City only 50 were selected to this elite group. Rankings are calculated based on a weighting of employee surveys...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Defends Against Niece’s Succession Claim to Regulated Apartment

When an occupant of a governmentally-regulated apartment claims succession rights to the apartment, but does not fall into one of the statutorily defined “familial relationships” with the tenant of record, in addition to proving a minimum of two-year’s co-residency, the occupant is required to prove an emotional and financial commitment and interdependence with the tenant of record. Recently, a landlord called upon Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to investigate a succession claim asserted by the tenant-of-record’s niece. Since uncle-niece is not...

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Manhattan Newly Constructed Condominium Takes Over Sponsor Controlled Board and Receives $450,000 + Apartment + Significant Construction Work Without Judicial Intervention

The unit owners of a 24-unit luxury new construction condominium in Manhattan hired Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. after the unit owners’ complaints and concerns about construction defects were ignored by the sponsor-controlled board, and demands by the unit owners to the sponsor that the sponsor turn over control of the board to the residents were denied. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. organized the unit owners, and despite the sponsor’s tactics to prevent its loss of power, the residents took control of...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Non-Primary Residence Case and Attorney Fees in Victory

When a tenant sought Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s help after his landlord commenced an eviction proceeding for non-primary residence, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. defended the tenant, prevailed in the case, and were awarded legal fees. This case demonstrates the pitfalls of an aggressive attorney pushing a weak position and getting punished for it. A tenant was sued for non-primary residence by a landlord who initiated the case based on a weak investigative report. The landlord was warned...

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FS 41-45 Tiemann Place LLC v. Estrella

FS 41-45 Tiemann Place LLC v Estrella 2012 NY Slip Op 22381 Decided on December 21, 2012 Appellate Term, First Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the printed Miscellaneous Reports. Decided on December 21, 2012 SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENT PRESENT: Lowe III, P.J., Shulman, Torres, JJ 570539/11. FS 41-45 Tiemann Place LLC, Petitioner-Landlord-Appellant, – – against Teresa Estrella...

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Inadvertent Sending of a Letter Should Not Result in Dismissal of a Meritorious Non-Primary Residence Action

In a case sadly reflective of certain decisions made by the judges of the housing court, the Appellate Term recently reinstated a non-primary residence proceeding that had been dismissed because the landlord sent a single letter to the daughter of the tenant of record acknowledging her recent move into her mother’s apartment. Based upon this letter, the lower court held that the daughter had somehow obtained the rights of a licensee and since the landlord did not send a notice...

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370 Columbus Realty LLC v. Liew

370 Columbus Realty LLLC v. Liew Slip Copy N.Y.Sup. 2013. Slip Copy, 2013 WL 399344, 2013 N.Y. Slip Op. 50131(U) This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports. 370 Columbus Realty LLC, Petitioner-Landlord- Appellant, v. Deborah Wan Liew, Respondent-Tenant- Respondent, – and – “John Doe” and “Jane Doe,” Respondents-Undertenants. 570446/12. Supreme Court, Appellate Term, First Department Decided on January 30, 2013 Digest-Index Classification:Landlord and Tenant- -Rent Regulation–Primary Residence–Tenant’s Occasional Use of Husband’s Nearby Studio...

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Adam Leitman Bailey was a featured speaker at the New York State Bar Association’s 2013 Annual Meeting

Adam Leitman Bailey was a featured speaker for two events at the New York State Bar Association’s 2013 Annual Meeting held in New York City on Thursday January 24th, 2013. More than 5,000 members of the New York State Bar Association from around the state attended the week long Annual Meeting. In his first event Adam Leitman Bailey presented a lecture on ‘The State of Mortgage Foreclosure in 2012’. In his lecture Mr. Bailey discussed recent foreclosure cases, decisions and...

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Making New Law, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains a Victory for Homeowners Association

In this case, certain objecting association members sought a preliminary injunction to prevent the association from expending funds to retain attorneys and engineers to investigate and prosecute construction defects litigation. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., defeated the motion. Siding with the firm’s argument, the Supreme Court in Queens County found that “the Board has plausibly argued that the applicability of [New York’s Condominium Act] should be extended to Homeowner’s Associations.” The court also sided with the firm’s argument that it would...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Assists Major Corporation to Settle Substantial ECB Violation Fine Arrears

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has assisted a major national corporation, with operations and locations throughout New York City, to settle a multimillion-dollar backlog of fines and violations issued by the New York City Environmental Control Board (ECB) for violations of the regulations of eight separate city departments. The settlements encompassed over 5,000 individual violations spanning more than five years and resulted in savings to the company in excess of one million dollars. To efficiently and cost-effectively examine the ECB violations...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Rescues Major Publicly Traded Company From Eviction

A major publicly traded company holding numerous New York properties came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. with a dilemma.  Its landlord at a building in a major up and coming neighborhood alleged that the company had been neglecting the rental property for decades.  As a result, the landlord was declaring forfeiture of the right to rent the property and putting potentially hundreds of employees in a position that they would have no desk to report to as the tenant company...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Protects Mortgage Security for JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully protected JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.’s (“Chase”) security interest in a condominium unit on Lorimer Street in Brooklyn by tracking down the seemingly lost original mortgage, along with the original underlying deed and transfer documents, and successfully ensuring the expedited recordation of all. On December 21, 2011, the original documents were submitted to the city register by the abstract company for recording; however, the documents were still not of record more than one year later, and...

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Bringing First Case Under New York State Disclosure Form for Buyer and Seller, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Records Creative and Favorable Settlement for Purchaser

Before engaging Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., the client had entered into a contract to purchase a luxury penthouse condominium apartment for $13 million dollars. The client had not engaged a broker as his own “buyer’s agent” and had dealt only with the seller’s broker. New York State law requires all real estate brokers and sales agents to give both buyers and sellers an agency disclosure form (ADF), at the broker’s “first substantive contact” with either the seller or the buyer....

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Mystery Solved: The Eviction of a Restaurant Without Anonymous Owner

A restaurant and bar had not paid rent for over six months.  A previous eviction attempt by another law firm had been defeated in court by a tenant who had nothing to defend with other than a host of technical flaws in an earlier case. It was thus apparent that absolutely every detail down to the last comma was going to have to be perfect if the landlord was going to prevail. One of those details was the legal requirement...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves Borrower $23,000 in Mortgage Tax

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has recently begun representing a lender based out of Florida State for residential mortgage closings. The first refinance the firm closed with this new lender was for a $1.2 million dollar mortgage which at the time was held by the same lender. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. requested the firm close this mortgage with a Consolidation, Extension and Modification Agreement (CEMA). A CEMA would allow the borrower to avoid paying mortgage tax by modifying a mortgage note...

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Landlord prevails in NYC Court’s First Sandy-Related Commercial Lease Decision

The Real Deal

By: Hiten Samtani May 1st, 2013 A New York City judge ruled Monday that the owner of 100 Maiden Lane is not liable for its tenant’s loss of electricity following Hurricane Sandy, in what is believed to be the city’s first decision on a commercial lease case related to storm losses. The tenant, a healthy restaurant chain called Just Salad, was not entitled to a rent abatement under the terms of its lease agreement with landlord Maiden Lane Properties, the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Has Been Selected By Chambers & Partners as a Leading Real Estate Lawyer for “Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” for the Fifth Consecutive Year In 2013

For the fifth consecutive year, Adam Leitman Bailey has been selected by Chambers & Partners to achieve ranking in “Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” and has been recognized as one of New York’s leading real estate lawyers. This is one of the highest honors a real estate attorney can achieve in his career. Out of 163, 798 lawyers practicing law in New York and hundreds of law firms listed in Chambers, only three firms with less than 30...

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Panel Upholds Unsealing of Settlements in Crane Case

New York Law Journal

By: Jeff Storey May 10th, 2013 A unanimous panel of the Appellate Division, First Department, yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision to unseal settlement documents stemming from the 2008 collapse of a construction crane that killed seven people. The panel ruled in Squeri v. East 51st Street Development, 117452/08, that Manhattan Justice Carol Edmead properly exercised her discretion when she unsealed the documents even though one wrongful death action from the accident remained pending. The panel held that there had...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Case of First Impression As the First Landlord to be Awarded Attorney Fees Under the Tenant Anti-Harassment Act

New York Law Journal

By: Scott E. Mollen May 15th, 2013 Landlord-Tenant—Tenant’s Harassment Claims Dismissed—Legal Fees Awarded to Landlord—Tenant Had Denied Landlord Access for Inspection and Repair The petitioner tenant had commenced a harassment proceeding against the landlord, alleging that the landlord “either used force, threatened the use of force or implied the use of force; repeatedly brought court cases against her for no good reason; and repeatedly caused or permitted acts or omissions that substantially interfered with or disturbed her comfort, peace or...

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Reducing Refinancing Expenses

The New York Times

By: Lisa Prevost May 23rd, 2013 New York homeowners looking to refinance an existing mortgage don’t have to pay the state’s mortgage recording tax all over again. Yet they may end up doing so if their lenders don’t cooperate. The state charges a recording tax on new mortgage debt. The rate varies by county, with the minimum being 1.05 percent of the loan amount. The rate is highest in New York State, where borrowers pay 1.8 percent of the loan...

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Nine Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Attorneys Named Super Lawyers and Rising Stars in 2013

Congratulations to the 8 Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys named Super Lawyers and Rising Stars in 2013. Founding partner Adam Leitman Bailey was announced as Super Lawyer for the sixth year, along with Colin E. Kaufman for the second year and John M. Desiderio and Jeffrey R. Metz for their first year. Mrs. Courtney Killelea Lerias and Carolyn Z. Rualo were announced as Super Lawyer Rising Star for the second year in a row and Jackie Halpern Weinstein for their...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Resolves Credit Report Mix Up at the Closing Table

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. recently represented a lender on a residential mortgage refinance where the borrower had an extremely common first and last name. The borrower was 82 years old and desperately needed to refinance for a lower rate. On the day of closing a last minute condition was sent by an underwriter for the lender. The borrower’s daughter-in-law shared the same first and last name as the borrower and had previously resided at the borrower’s home. The borrower’s son...

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Chambers and Partners Selects Adam Leitman Bailey as a Leading Real Estate Lawyer for its Chambers USA; Only one of three New York Firms with Fewer Than 30 attorneys to receive this honor and only real estate litigation firm.

Adam Leitman Bailey has been selected by Chambers & Partners to achieve ranking in “Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” and has been recognized as one of New York’s leading real estate lawyers. This is one of the highest honors a real estate attorney can achieve in his career. Out of 163,798 lawyers practicing law in New York and hundreds of law firms listed in Chambers, only three firms with less than 30 attorneys in New York have been...

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Landlord Ordered to Make Major Repairs to Apartment

The New York Post

[A] conversion has sparked several confrontations of the kind familiar when rent-stabilized apartments are vacated so they can be turned into luxury condos. [The current owner] bought the 1940 property at East 71st Street in 2011 with CIM Group and other partners in a deal valued at $360 million. Work has progressed rapidly, and exterior brick recently emerged from under a scaffold, gleaming and with new windows. [He] induced many tenants to move out with generous buyouts, including in some...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Jeffrey R. Metz Has More Real Estate Appellate Wins Than Any Other Practicing Attorney in New York

Jeffrey R. Metz has participated in many of the most important New York real estate decisions of this generation. Jeffrey R. Metz has prepared and argued over two hundred and fifty appeals, approximately one hundred and fifty of which have been officially reported. A review of twenty-five years of the Housing Court Reporter shows Bureau Chief Jeffrey R. Metz as one of the most frequently appearing and winning practitioners before New York’s appellate courts. In fact, an in-house study using...

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Appeals Court OKs Lifting Seal on Turtle Bay Crane Collapse Wrongful Death Settlements

The Real Deal

By: Hiten Samtani May 10th, 2013 A New York state appeals court has upheld a lower court judge’s decision to unseal documents relating to multiple wrongful death settlements in a 2008 Turtle Bay crane collapse, The Real Deal has learned. The site is home to HFZ Capital Group’s Halcyon NY condominium development. The March 2008 crane accident at 303 East 51st Street, between First and Second avenues, killed seven people and damaged nearby buildings, including the site of restaurant Crave...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Has More Super Lawyers and Super Lawyer Rising Stars Than Any Other New York City Real Estate Law Firm With Under 30 Attorneys

In 2013, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. received a greater number of Super Lawyers and Super Lawyer Rising Stars in New York City than any other real estate law firm with fewer than 30 attorneys. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is also the only real estate litigation law firm with under 30 attorneys that has also received recognition from Chambers and Partners, AV® Martindale-Hubbell rating, Super Lawyers honors, and selection into the Registry of Preeminent Lawyers as well as the American College...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Receives Highest Rating From Martindale Hubbell

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is proud to receive an “AV” rating from Martindale-Hubbell, the country’s preeminent lawyer rating service. An “AV” rating signifies a firm that has “achieved the highest levels of professional skill and integrity.” Six attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. have received this prestigious honor including Adam Leitman Bailey, John M. Desiderio, Colin Kaufman, Jeffrey Metz.. Less than 14% of attorneys throughout the entire United States are “AV” Rated. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is one of four...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Jury Trial Evicting Tenant for Failing to Use the Premises as Primary Residence

When a landlord sought Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s help after his tenant abused his privileges of maintaining his rent-stabilized apartment as his primary residence, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully defended the landlord and swiftly prevailed at trial. In April of 2011, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. issued a Combined nNotice of Non-Renewal of Lease and Intention to Commence Summary Proceedings based on non-primary residence. The tenant, however, claimed that he was, in fact, residing at...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Defends One of the Largest Telecommunications Companies Against Fire Violations and Assists in Obtaining Indemnification from Landlord

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully defended one of the largest telecommunications companies, with operations and locations throughout New York City, against four (4) fire violations that were issued by the Nassau County Fire Marshal (“NCFM”), as a result of forty-seven (47) false alarms in the subject warehouse, which the client rented from the landlord. The false alarms were allegedly caused by pigeons that flew into the warehouse through the open loading docks. Apparently, the state-of-the-art fire alarm system that was...

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Invoking Extremely Rarely Used and Nearly Unheard of Procedures, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Secures a Judgment of Eviction Against a Condominium Unit Owner for Offensive and Disturbing Behavior

On behalf of a Queens County Condominium, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. brought a Supreme Court action for ejectment and nuisance against the owner of a particular condominium unit and the owner’s son who actually occupied the unit. Over a period in excess of two years, the owner’s son engaged in a pattern of behavior designed to shock, humiliate, intimidate, and terrorize the other residents of the condominium. Specifically, the occupant had, on more than one occasion, exposed himself to other...

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The Real Deal Credits Adam Leitman Bailey as First Lawyer in NYC to Use the ILSA Provision to Get Buyers Out of Contracts in Wake of The Financial Crisis

The Real Deal

By: Hiten Samati September 27th, 2013 The U.S. House of Representatives handed condominium developers a significant victory Thursday, unanimously passing a bill that exempts condos from filing and registration requirements mandated by the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, commonly referred to as ILSA. Under the bill, known as H.R. 2600, developers of new condos or time-shares with at least 99 units will no longer have to register their buildings with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Though...

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Court Rules Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Client’s Security Measures Were Appropriate Under Circumstances

This case was based on the non-delegable duty of a building owner to take reasonable steps to ensure the safety of residents and visitors to the premises. The plaintiff was a resident who had a fleeting sexual relationship with two women. The women saw a bag of white powder they concluded was cocaine (but was actually cassava flour) in the apartment. The two returned with three male accomplices who gained entry to the building utilizing what the plaintiff alleged was...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Priority Position for GMAC Mortgage, LLC

In GMAC Mortgage, LLC v. Guzman, et. al., Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. won a decision and order declaring that GMAC’s mortgage is secured by a first priority interest in a Brooklyn property, even though a different lender, who gave a mortgage one day prior, won the race to record. In 2007, when GMAC gave the mortgage, it appeared to be a first priority lien. Upon recording the mortgage, however, GMAC discovered that a different lender recorded a mortgage purportedly secured...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Record-Breaking Sum in Settlement for Tenant Being Forced Out of Home

Hired to stop the landlord from decreasing services and to arrange for a sale of a lease where Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client’s family would never have to worry about money again, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. plunged into immediate action. After a week of trial, conducted by Adam Leitman Bailey and Christopher Halligan, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prevailed with the court ordering all repairs and setting the matter down for further proceedings to award the client attorney fees and determinations...

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Worst Nightmare of Tenant Forced Out for a Pittance

Faced with an accurately self-described “your worst nightmare” of a tenant, a landlord retained Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to bring a nuisance proceeding to have the tenant evicted after she had chased out numerous decent tenants from the building and sexually assaulted the building superintendent’s wife. Amongst the tenant’s antics were abusive and obscene voicemails, threats of physical violence against building residents and staff, a YouTube posting of cruelty to a pet cat inside the tenant’s apartment, and Facebook postings...

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Squeezing Out Evidence of Apartment Overcrowding

Real Estate Weekly

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman For middle class American society, the idea of the minimum amount of space one would want to live in is vastly larger than standards accepted as absolutely normal in other times, places, and cultures. Consider that a 64 square foot igloo is commonly said to comfortably house five adults. However, any New York landlord looking at five adults living in an 8 ft. x 8 ft. apartment would be on the phone with...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is Only One of Five New York Real Estate Law Firms with Under 30 Attorneys to be Selected as a 2014 “Best Law Firm” by U.S. News and World Report

In 2014, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is one of five New York Real Estate Law Firms with under 30 attorneys to be selected as a “Best Law Firm” by U.S. News and World Report Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is also the only real estate litigation law firm with under 30 attorneys that has received recognition from Chambers and Partners, AV® Martindale-Hubbell rating, Super Lawyers honors, and selection into the Registry of Preeminent Lawyers as well as the American College of...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Uses “Non-Traditional Family” Succession Laws to Prevail at Trial for Landlord After Original Firm Throws in Towel

In March of 2013, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., received an email from a prominent New York City landlord asking for help with a succession case. The occupant was attempting to succeed to a rent-controlled apartment after the recent death of the tenant of record. The occupant was in her early twenties. The monthly rent was less than $300. The potential long-term losses for the landlord were enormous. A licensee case had already been started by another respected law firm. Discovery...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Use of Arcane and Recently Amended Loft Law Rules Results in Landlord Paying Hundreds of Thousands of Dollars and Awarding a Two-Year Rent Waiver for Apartment Lease

For decades, the tenant lived in a tiny Alphabet City apartment located in a commercial building. Three years ago the tenant learned that the building owner was selling the building to new investors who were planning to convert it to luxury condominium apartments. The owner began to shut off essential building and apartment services. The owner threatened to evict her and offered nothing more than moving expenses. When the building was sold, the new owner quickly brought an eviction case...

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Using an Unpublished Contractor Decision by Judge and Finite Details of General Business Law, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails at Trial

The client, a Westchester County homeowner, was sued for a full repaving of a home driveway pursuant to a written contract. The work was done in what the plaintiff contractor asserted was a workmanlike manner; the client was dissatisfied because of defective installation work and collateral damage to the property. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. did not draft the pleadings and was substituted in as counsel only a few months pre-trial. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prepared a two-pronged defense, based legally...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Case for Commercial Property Seller: Contract Disclaimers Are Enforceable

This case strongly reaffirms that with respect to real property transactions, the parties will be held to the terms of the agreement(s) they made. In this case, the plaintiff had entered into agreements with the seller to purchase a building in a piecemeal fashion. The purchaser first purchased a 7 % interest for two million dollars and agreed to purchase the remaining 93% for approximately another 16 million dollars by a date certain. The agreement contained a provision that in...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Eviction Allows Developer to Demolish on Time

The property owner/developer needed the removal of all commercial tenants in order to begin demolition before end-of-year. Although the commercial tenants had no leases, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was given only two months to obtain possession. The tenant’s answer created several creative and some not so creative defenses to the eviction action. Taking a risk by moving for summary judgment on the cases instead of proceeding to a trial and praying that the judge would decide the case from the...

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Through Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Efforts, a Developmentally Disabled Adult Has His Section 8 Benefits Restored and Is Able to Retain His Apartment

Section 8 benefits provide a needed subsidy for the less fortunate and especially for those who are developmentally disabled. One such disabled adult came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. after his Section 8 benefits had been terminated by the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (“HPD”). An investigator for HPD had claimed that the adult was not primarily residing in his apartment but rather in a cooperative apartment that he owned. At a hearing before HPD, the adult and his...

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Tenant Sues for Harassment, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins for Landlord and Obtains Attorney Fee Award

When a landlord sought Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s help after his tenant commenced a harassment proceeding, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. defended the landlord, prevailed on the case, and were awarded legal fees. This case demonstrates the shortcomings of an overly aggressive attorney pushing a weak position and getting punished for it. A tenant alleged that her landlord used force, threatened the use of force or implied the use of force; repeatedly brought court cases against her for...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has more attorneys named in the Top Women Attorneys in the New York Metro Area than any other firm

NEW YORK, N.Y. – 22 % of the Top 50 Women Attorneys in New York metropolitan area in 2014 are from Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. The Top Women Attorneys in the New York Metro Area appeared in the March 12th, 2014 issue of The New York Times Magazine. The New York Times only featured 18 real estate attorneys – of which 22% were attorneys from Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.  The feature was sponsored by Super Lawyers. The Adam Leitman Bailey,P.C....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Succeeds in Brokering a Favorable Buyout for Residential Tenants Whose Apartment Was Substantially Damaged by a Fire

In this matter, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, famous American singer, songwriter and composer Lesley Gore (“It’s My Party” & “You Don’t Own Me”) and her longtime partner, were lessees of a residential unit, which was substantially destroyed as a result of a fire. The New York City Fire Department investigated the loss and opined that the fire was caused by a candle at the foot of the clients’ bed that lit the bedsheets on fire and spread to the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Rescues a Commercial Tenant From Eviction and a Nine Million Dollar Judgment

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained as appellate counsel to prosecute an appeal for a commercial tenant who, as a result of making one late rent payment, had a judgment of possession entered against it as well as a subsequent money judgment for more than nine (9) million dollars for use and occupancy. The possessory judgment was granted on summary judgment. Needing a vehicle to reverse the judgment and get the tenant to trial, the firm was able to successfully...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Visits Emergency Room to Get Loan Closed

Snowy days will not slow down the transactional department at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. During a recent snowstorm Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented a lender at a real property purchase closing in Westchester county. The purchasers were a lovely working couple purchasing their first home. Although the husband arrived early to the closing, his wife, who is a veterinarian, was called in for emergency surgery at the last moment and was not going to make it to the closing. It...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Mortgage Foreclosure, Protecting Interest of Condominium Board in Apartment

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was hired to represent an Upper East Side condominium board in litigation involving a defaulting unit owner and her mortgage lender. The unit owner had stopped paying both her mortgage and her common charges, leading the lender to bring a mortgage foreclosure. Because New York law provides that a condominium’s charge lien is secondary to the mortgage on the unit, the foreclosure action prevented the condo from enforcing its lien for its charges. Had the condominium...

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Fraud Claims Against HPD Not Time-Barred

New York Law Journal

By: Brendan Pierson June 30th, 2014 A Manhattan judge has ruled that claims accusing the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and developers of defrauding residents in a city-assisted co-op conversion in upper Manhattan can proceed. Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden’s (See Profile) decision in Peny & Co. v. 936-938 Cliffcrest Housing Development Fund Corp., 850011/13, declined to add claims against HPD immediately, but said that the residents will be able to renew their motion to add those claims after...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Devours World’s Largest Submarine Sandwich Franchise

When a Harlem landlord needed to evict the largest national submarine franchise and its franchisee, who operated the subject space, from its building for failure to pay rent, it turned to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for assistance. Prior to initiating this commercial nonpayment proceeding, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. had also filed a residential nonpayment proceeding against the franchisee’s principal, who resided in the same building, on behalf of the landlord. Immediately after Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. commenced the commercial eviction...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Trial: Tenant’s Waiver and Oral Agreement Claims Dismissed; Eviction Completed Within Three Months.

When a landlord sought Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s help after his tenant exceeded the stay of his commercial lease, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. defended the landlord and swiftly prevailed on the case. In May of 2013, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. issued a 30-Day Notice of Termination to evict a tenant whose lease had expired in August of the previous year. The tenant, however, claimed that he made a verbal agreement with the landlord that...

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Sponsor Foreclosure of Super’s Unit Thwarted by Board’s Novel Fraud Defense

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represents a board of a large Manhattan condominium that is in dispute with the condominium’s sponsor-developer over construction defects and misuse of condominium funds. Upon hiring the firm, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. performed a detailed review of all potential claims Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. may have against the condominium’s sponsor-developer. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. discovered that the previous sponsor-controlled board signed a mortgage and note with the sponsor with respect to conveyance of the superintendent’s apartment....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Blocks Multimillion-Dollar Deal on an East Village Walk-Up Hours Before It Was Set to Close and Obtains Favorable Settlement for Client

After a respected Manhattan-based real estate investment firm discovered that its former vice president of acquisitions stole an investment opportunity to purchase an East Village walk-up that the employee was presented with during the scope of his employment, it turned to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for assistance. Instead of presenting this business opportunity to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client first, as he had a duty to do, the former executive decided to acquire the property for his own pecuniary interest...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Negotiates and Obtains One of the Largest Condominium Settlements for a Deficiently-Built, Newly Constructed Building in New York City History

The board of managers of a very large new-construction Manhattan condominium tried to compel the sponsor-developer of the condominium to remediate the multitude of construction defects and reimburse the board for expenses that were improperly incurred when the sponsor-developer controlled the board. The sponsor-developer is one of the city’s largest and most active developers, and the sponsor-developer refused to acknowledge the board’s concerns. After years of unsuccessfully trying to get the sponsor-developer to engage in settlement talks with another law...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Victory at the Supreme Court, Appellate Division Vindicates Client’s Rights to Parents’ Property After Decades-Long Family Dispute

After a long and fiercely contested battle, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. recently prevailed at the Supreme Court Appellate Division, Second Department, resolving decades-old issues involving a family’s proportionate ownership interests in a two-family Brooklyn house. The court agreed with Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s arguments that the issues relating to the property were actually litigated or should have been raised years ago in the context of an estate proceeding in Florida and that the order of the Florida court should be...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Rescues Condominium From Combination With University

Winning at the Governmental Agencies Retained to stop the Upper East Side campus expansion plans of the country’s largest private institution (the “University”) that involved the proposed construction of putting a hole in the side of our client’s building to create an above ground tunnel to connect its building, the landmarked Duke House, with a donated commercial space in Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client’s neighboring building – in the alley between the two structures on one of NYC’s most coveted...

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Saving a Condominium Building From Demolition

The plaintiff, the owner of two third-floor units at a residential condominium on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, brought suit against Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients, the condominium sponsor and its corporate affiliates. The plaintiff alleged that she had contracted with the sponsor to purchase the units during 2007 in reliance on the sponsor’s representations that a planned commercial community facility space the sponsor intended to develop – as yet, unconstructed – would not exceed two stories in height. When the...

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NYU expansion at Sheldon Solow-donated space suffers setback

The Real Deal

By: Hiten Samtani June 3rd, 2014 New York University’s plans to connect its Upper East Side fine arts institute with a donated space in a neighboring building appear to have been quashed by that building’s condo board, which claims the university’s plans require the board’s consent. The institute operates from a 40,000-square-foot-space at 1 East 78th Street. NYU hoped to gain even more room by connecting the building to a neighboring, six-story, 13-unit building at 3 East 78th Street via...

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Seeking to Expand an Uptown Site, N.Y.U. Finds Itself in an Alley Fight

The New York Times

By: Matt A. V. Chaban June 2nd, 2014 “I am shocked and appalled at N.Y.U.,” Aldo Bozzi shouted during a community board meeting two weeks ago. “And this is just beginning. New York is going to decay if this is going to be permitted.” For the nation’s largest private university, this has become a familiar lament, but this time it comes from unfamiliar territory. Rather than the professors, radicals and bohemian celebrities in its native Greenwich Village who have assailed...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Achieves Remarkable $1.6 Million Buyout for Rent Controlled Tenant

Facts: In April 2014, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was contacted by a 75-year-old rent-controlled tenant after the new owner/landlord of her building asked her to move out of her apartment. The tenant/client had lived in the five-story walkup building—located on one of the trendiest blocks in Manhattan’s West Village—for over 52 years and was the building’s sole remaining occupant. In May 2013, the new landlord purchased the building with the intention of turning it into a single-family townhouse. Of course,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Unveils Seller Lies and Saves Client-Investor From Losing Millions

A property investor client came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for advice on whether it should purchase two Brooklyn properties. Their primary concern was rent stabilization and its impact, if any, on the buildings and future income. The day after Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. received the sales package, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. scheduled a visit to the seller’s management office and within moments began unveiling misrepresentations. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s due diligence team caught the seller in such a vast...

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Winning an Overcharge Case Against Tenant Leads to Eviction: Using Detective Tactics Thousands in Rent Arrears Collected

A residential tenant who accumulated over $25,000 in rent arrears vacated the apartment leaving the landlord with a substantial money judgment that was considered uncollectible until her whereabouts were uncovered after Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s victory in this overcharge case. The tenant commenced this overcharge case in 2011. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, the current owner, was almost willing to abandon enforcement of the judgment until the Division of Housing and Community Renewal resurrected this overcharge case after it had...

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Senate Votes to Strike Down ILSA Requirements for Condos

The Real Deal

By: Hiten Samtani September 19th, 2014 Condominium developers scored a major coup last night, as the United States Senate voted unanimously to pass a bill that exempts condos from filing and registration requirements mandated by the Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act, commonly referred to as ILSA. Having now cleared both the Senate and the House of Representatives, the bill will move on to the White House to be signed into law. Once that happens, developers of new condos or...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Is Given Largest “Due Diligence” Project Since Stuyvesant Town — This Time Representing the Lender

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s due diligence team was given five business days to investigate a building portfolio of over 1,100 condominium units, educate the borrower on the process of deregulation and what pitfalls to expect, and determine whether the seller was withholding information about the buildings’ participation in the J-51 and 421a tax benefit programs. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. revealed that all the buildings, not just two of them, as was represented by the seller, at some point in time...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Halts the Illegal Sale of a Luxury Condominium Penthouse

After the residents of a luxury condominium in Washington Heights learned that their building was riddled with severe water infiltration issues, mold and substantial structural problems resulting from shoddy construction work performed by the sponsor, they retained Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to bring a lawsuit against the sponsor. Ultimately, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was successful in the Supreme Court in obtaining a judgment against the sponsor in the underlying construction defect lawsuit. However, while the condominium’s case against the sponsor...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Uses Fraud/ RICO Claim to Extend Statute of Limitations

By: Brendan Pierson June 30th, 2014 A Manhattan judge has ruled that claims accusing the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and developers of defrauding residents in a city-assisted co-op conversion in upper Manhattan can proceed. Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden’s (See Profile) decision in Peny & Co. v. 936-938 Cliffcrest Housing Development Fund Corp., 850011/13, declined to add claims against HPD immediately, but said that the residents will be able to renew their motion to add those claims after...

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The Attempt to Stop a 154-Million Dollar Construction Project

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. received a call from a very large clients that an adversary was filing an emergency action the next day at State Supreme Court. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. had a guess as to the claim but no papers or threats in our hands to defend against. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. began defending what it thought would be the best case they could bring. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. did not want to show up in court without a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves Client From Forfeiture of Its Valuable Commercial Lease in SoHo Just in the Nick of Time

When one of the world’s largest oriental rug and home furnishings wholesalers came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for help to defend it in an eviction proceeding instituted by its landlord that its prior counsel mishandled, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. had little time to spare. Over twenty years ago, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client entered into a long-term commercial lease with the landlord for retail space (the “Premises”) in a loft building in SoHo – New York City’s hottest retail...

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Owners of Foreclosed Condo Can’t Return, Judge Concludes

New York Law Journal

By Ben Bedell A claim by owners of a condominium that they were illegally locked out of their apartment was rejected by a Manhattan Housing Court judge who noted that the apartment was in foreclosure and their eviction was inevitable. Judge Jack Stoller (See Profile) said three factors “weighed heavily” in his decision not to restore possession to Lourdes Lejano and her family: the fact that none of the petitioners maintained the premises as their “actual home;” that the individual...

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Landlord-Tenant—Rent Stabilization—Jury Found Tenant Was Non-Primary Resident and Landlord Was Awarded Judgment of Possession—Tenant Claimed That He Traveled for Business and Analogized to Touring Entertainers

New York Law Journal

By: Scott E. Mollen August 20th, 2014 A jury had rendered a verdict in favor of the landlord in a non-primary residence proceeding. The tenant thereafter moved, inter alia, for a judgment notwithstanding the verdict. The court denied the motion and awarded the landlord a final judgment of possession. The landlord contended that the tenant had spent 80 percent of his time in Argentina, living at a “2400 square foot house that he was redecorating for the better part of...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Tough Advocacy Results in Pre-Answer Settlement for Condominium Sponsor

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented a prominent real estate investment fund known for developing and redeveloping real estate in densely populated, ethnically-diverse urban communities. In this case, the firm was engaged by the fund to represent the sponsor and principals of a mixed-use, 47-unit residential/two-unit commercial condominium in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. In 2011, the condominium’s board of managers commenced a lawsuit against the sponsor and principals, alleging construction and design deficiencies in the condominium building’s window-wall system...

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Sponsors Busted: Reserve Fund Law Plain Meaning Upheld

The board of managers of a conversion condominium hired Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to pursue the condominium’s sponsor for construction defects in the condominium. Because it was a conversion and not a new construction condominium, recourse for construction defects is limited. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. investigated and discovered that the statutorily required reserve fund was underfunded. The sponsor used insider discount sales prices as the prices it used to calculate the amount of the reserve fund, rather than the price...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Attorneys Named Super Lawyers Rising Stars 2014

Super Lawyers magazine identified the top attorneys in the New York Metro area based on an independent survey of nearly 90,000 attorneys. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is proud to say it has more Super Lawyers Rising Stars than any other real estate firm in the New York Metro area. Super Lawyers is a rating service of outstanding lawyers from more than 70 practice areas who have attained a high-degree of peer recognition and professional achievement. The selection process is multi-phased...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Trial Protecting Shareholder Who Claimed Holder of Unsold Shares Status Against Cooperative Board’s Illegal Sublet Proceeding

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was recently called upon to represent a shareholder against a cooperative board’s holdover proceeding brought on the grounds of an alleged illegal sublet of her apartment. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prevailed after a three day trial. In 2008, when the client saw an advertisement for a cooperative apartment for sale in Brooklyn, she was excited to learn from the seller’s broker that the apartment was being sold directly by the sponsor. This meant that if she...

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Lawsuit Avoided by Creative Lawyering to Allow Client to Build Without Moving Client’s Wall

The wall of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients’ building encroached upon the neighbor’s Upper East Side town house property by 3-5 inches according to his lawyers. The neighbor’s attorneys provided a survey purportedly evidencing same. Instead of engaging in a multi-year and expensive lawsuit, Adam Leitman Bailey proposed getting the engineers and contractors together to come up with a solution. At the meeting, Adam Leitman Bailey used his summer of building homes in Tzfat Israel to show the neighbor how...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Finds Smoking Gun That Building Is Rent Regulated Despite Seller’s Representations

A sophisticated property owner hired Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to do the due diligence to purchase two multi-family buildings. Each building was only five units and hence marketed as having no rent-regulated tenancies in either building. By the end of our search of the Department of Buildings, the Division of Housing and Community Renewal, and the Supreme and housing Courts,  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. located a Division of Housing and Community Renewal decision that declared both buildings to have enough...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Legal Battle for a Holocaust Survivor, Finding Him a New Home

Chaim Indig, an 83-year-old Auschwitz survivor from Boro Park, is now able to live out of his days peacefully and comfortably in a handicapped-accessible luxury apartment in Midwood, known as the Premier House thanks to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Read more about this case below:

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves a Piece of History

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a shareholder in a land-marked, prestigious cooperative apartment building faced a unique challenge:the cooperative was responsible for maintaining the windows in his unit that were installed in mid-century and pivoted in and out. However, the cooperative failed to maintain the windows and a leaking condition ensued. When the shareholder sought to have the leaks and windows repaired, a cooperative obligation under the proprietary lease, the cooperative sought to replace the unique windows and replace them...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Appears on The Willis Report to Discuss Drop In Mortgage Rates

Fox News

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Client Honors Christopher Halligan at the Brooklyn Community Housing & Services Gala 2014

April 30, 2014 – Brooklyn Community Housing and Services(BCHS) proudly honors Christopher Halligan,Esq.for providing expert legal services to BCHS; and for always demostrating thoughtfulness and compassion when handling sensitive matters for BCHS and its formerly homeless tenants. Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. is honored to be able to assist our client, BCHS & Jeff Nemetsky with the wonderful work they do. BCHS is committed to ending homelessness in Brooklyn. Each year, they provide safe and clean supportive housing for more than 1,000...

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Defeated Negative Amortization Recordation Roadblock

Reason for retaining Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.: The insured could not record a mortgage and a Consolidation, Extension, and Modification Agreement (“CEMA”), thereby leaving the insured open to potential claims by lienors with liens actually inferior to the insured’s. Result: Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. determined that the mortgage and CEMA reflected a negative amortization in Section 4 of the adjustable rate rider, and that the Suffolk County Clerk refused to accept them for recordation because the numeric amounts written on...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Appeal: Family Can Keep Apartment Despite Error, Panel Finds

By: Brendan Pierson April 15th, 2014 New York City’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development cannot reconsider its decision to give a four-bedroom subsidized co-op to a family of five, against its normal rules, because the other family challenging the decision has no standing to sue, a state appeals court recently found. The unanimous Appellate Division, First Department panel ruled in Echevarria v. Wambua, 103396/12, that there was no grounds for a remand, even though the housing agency said it...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Defends Condominium Board’s Claims for Construction Defects Against a Motion to Dismiss by the Sponsor and Architect

A recent decision from the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Kings upheld claims alleged by the board of managers of a Brooklyn condominium against its sponsor and architect for construction defects. In this action, the board of managers, represented by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., sought to recover damages for various construction defects, including lack of fire stopping and significant water infiltration into the building and units. The sponsor and the architect both moved to dismiss...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Creative Lawyering Allows Major Company to Fend Off Bankruptcy, Acquire Six Months to Vacate Office Space and Waiver of Back Rent

A large company with over a thousand employees needed to downsize as a result of consumer’s use of the internet for shopping. The company owed over a hundred thousand dollars in back rent and needed time to find a subtenant for the commercial office space and time to make a deal with the landlord before being evicted. The commercial tenant gave the firm its mission–they needed Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to keep them in possession for three months. The landlord...

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New Sprinkler-Notification Law Could Require Reissuing Proprietary Leases

By Frank Lovece Dec. 26, 2014 — A New York State law that went into effect Dec. 3, requiring all residential leases to contain a notice about the building’s sprinkler system, appears to mandate that even co-op proprietary leases must be amended to reflect the language change. The new law also impacts leases offered by condominium homeowners renting their apartments as well as subleases offered by rental tenants and by co-op shareholders. The addition to the Section 231 of the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Performs Extensive Due Diligence and Utilizes Spoliation of Evidence Doctrine in Swift Defeat of Landlord’s Non-Primary Residence Case Against Television Producer

When a Manhattan television producer – the longtime tenant of a rent-stabilized apartment in Little Italy – was served with a notice of lease termination from his landlord because the subject apartment was allegedly not his primary home, he turned to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to represent him. The landlord believed that because the client owned a second residential property in Long Island, he was spending an extended time away from his apartment and therefore, the apartment was not his...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Uses Innovative Lawyering to Win Trial, Thereby Saving Tenant’s Large Tribeca Loft

When the tenant – a Manhattan real estate broker – was served with a notice of petition and holdover petition seeking her eviction from her large Tribeca loft by her roommate because she allegedly illegally sublet her unit through Airbnb, she hired Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to represent her. The client originally entered into an oral month-to-month lease for her large Tribeca loft with her roommate’s mother, who represented to the client that she was the original tenant of record...

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Defining the Limits Of Liquidated Damages Clauses

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman Real estate leases are, by their nature, bets the parties are placing on what the future may hold. Both landlord interests and tenant interests try to hedge their bets by inserting clauses to produce certain results in the event of an uncertain future. Chief among these mechanisms are liquidated damages clauses that seek to give to the event of breach of the contract at an unpredictable time with unpredictable consequences, certain quantification. The...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves a Piece of History

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a shareholder in a land-marked, prestigious cooperative apartment building faced a unique challenge:the cooperative was responsible for maintaining the windows in his unit that were installed in mid-century and pivoted in and out. However, the cooperative failed to maintain the windows and a leaking condition ensued. When the shareholder sought to have the leaks and windows repaired, a cooperative obligation under the proprietary lease, the cooperative sought to replace the unique windows and replace them...

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New Law Requires Sprinkler System Clauses in Leases

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman Effective Dec. 3, 2014, all residential leases in New York State require a notice to the tenant about the presence or absence of sprinkler systems in the “leased premises.” The new law, while defining what a sprinkler system is, does not define what a “lease” is or what “premises” are. The law is effective through the entire state of New York and appears to cover both main leases and subleases as well as...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Breaks New Legal Ground With Appellate Victory For Attorneys’ Fees On A Stipulation

Luxury penthouse apartment suffering from various deficiencies sued for damages Issue on appeal was whether attorneys awarded per contract to the prevailing party constituted one party surrendering the minute the first witness was called to the stand. The developer argued that since it provided unit owner 100 percent of the amounts owner would have possibly won after litigation before the trial started, the owner should not be able to collect attorney fees under a provision in the contract allowing the...

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After a Domestic Partner Dies

The New York Times

By: Ronda Kaysen January 17, 2015 Until his recent death, my uncle lived in a rent-controlled apartment for more than 40 years. His life partner had lived with him there for most of those years, but the lease was only in my uncle’s name. My uncle’s life partner would like to stay put, but I am not sure whether he has any right to stay in the apartment under the same rent-controlled status. Upper West Side, Manhattan Your uncle’s partner...

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How to Revise Governing Documents

Habitat Magazine

By Adam Leitman Bailey The board had decided to revise its bylaws and proprietary lease. Now what? It is a familiar story: the co-op corporation’s bylaws and proprietary lease were antiquated. Both documents were poorly drafted, rife with internal inconsistencies and conflicts with current law. There were no longer relevant provisions regarding the original sponsor, and they were not adequately meeting the current needs of the co-op. The time to update had clearly come, and the board asked its attorneys...

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Tenant Association Defeats Landlord’s Major Capital Improvement Request With 99% Reduction in Amount Claimed; New Record Achieved

When owners make improvements or installations to a building subject to the rent-stabilization or rent-control laws, they can apply to the Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) for approval to raise the rents of the rent regulated tenants based on the actual, verified cost of the major capital improvement (MCI). For rent-stabilized apartments there is a permanent prospective increase, and a temporary retroactive increase in the rent. For rent-controlled apartments, there is only a prospective increase. The rent increase...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes New Law and Prevails at the Appellate Division in Adverse Possession Case of First Impression

In a case of first impression in the Second Department involving the law of adverse possession, the Appellate Division has ruled that pursuant to the amendment to Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law §543, de minimus non-structural encroachments are, as a matter of law, deemed permissive and non-adverse and cannot support a claim for adverse possession. In Hartman v. Goldman, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully represented the Goldman family before the Supreme Court and the Appellate Division. The plaintiffs, adjacent...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails Against Trump Soho on Fraud Claims; Settlement Provides Millions of Dollars to Clients

The New York Post

“They cried “fraud!” — and now, a bunch of well-heeled apartment hunters will get a staggering 90 percent of their deposits back on posh pads they intended to buy at the troubled Trump SoHo condo-hotel because they relied on the developers’ “deceptive” sales figures.  In a federal lawsuit settled yesterday, woulda-been buyers of 10 condos — including former French soccer star Olivier Dacourt — will get back 90 percent of $3.16 million (Not part of settlement total number is $5.197)...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Has Been at the Forefront of Some of the Most Monumental Real Estate Victories of the 21st Century

As one of New York’s premier real estate litigation firms, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has participated and prevailed in many of the most important New York real estate cases of the new millennium, as reflected in numerous published and unpublished decisions on novel legal issues. The firm’s attorneys have won over a thousand cases in the courts of New York state, including State Supreme, Housing, Civil and Federal courts in addition to over 250 appellate court cases, many at New...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Forces Sponsor to Donate an Additonal $21 Million to Repair and Renovate Building as Well as Obtaining Landlord’s Consent to Have Homeowner Association Board Members

Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. took on a Brooklyn-based developer after residents were forced to move into a building that lacked basic housing requirements and certainly failed to look and act like the multimillion-dollar apartment dwellings as listed in the marketing materials. The developer failed to complete the common elements, roof and other amenities. After Adam Leitman Bailey was hired to file notices and after meetings with the developer, the sponsor gave the building an additional 21 million dollars to complete...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes New Law, Evicting Long-Term Nuisance Tenant

In Cabrini Terrace Joint Venture v. O’Brien, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. evicted a forty-year tenant who had been creating a nuisance for his neighbors through his disgusting housekeeping practices. Located in upper Manhattan, Charles O’Brien’s apartment was atrocious, the site of piles of clothing and other debris, and host to hundreds of vermin- some of whom escaped to invade neighbors’ apartments as well. The smell erupting from the apartment was immediately apparent and nauseating as one stepped off the elevator. But,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Lands Largest Condominium Settlement in New York History

Sky View Parc Condominum, Queens In what has been hailed as “the city’s largest condo refund ever” (Curbed NY) and “a settlement likely to send shivers through the ranks of the city’s condo developers” (the New York Post), clients of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., have recovered 75 percent of $5 million in down payments on $50 million worth of luxury apartments. The agreement, which has recouped $3.69 million plus interest for 118 buyers at the massive Sky View Parc complex...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails in Title Litigation Involving An Interpretation of the New York Recording Statute

Rivas v. McDonnell Supreme Court of the State of New York; Appellate Division: Second Judicial Department My Story: The Importance of Title Insurance I got the panicked call at about 7 PM one evening from Earl, a friend and fellow real estate attorney. “Adam, I really, really screwed up, man,” he said, sounding out of breath. “I need help big time. I’m desperate.” Earl went on to explain that he represented a buyer named Pura Rivas who was purchasing a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Helps Shareholders Regain Control of Their Building

In a recent matter, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. counseled a group of concerned shareholders in removing an incumbent board of directors of a prestigious Manhattan cooperative. A group of concerned shareholders of a prestigious Manhattan cooperative were challenged and frustrated by an incumbent board. The board’s lack of truthfulness and transparency, unilateral decision-making, and failure to involve shareholders in critical decisions affecting the shareholders’ daily lives, the aesthetics of the building, and shareholder value, had become intolerable. After further research,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Vacates 32 Commercial Spaces on a Commercial Campus

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.s represented a Queens-based landlord, who had property in his family for decades. The landlord entered into short term leases with 32 commercial spaces, however the landlord required the spaces to be vacated sooner than he had initially expected or governmental funding deadlines would expire. If the premises were not vacated by a certain deadline, the landlord would be forced to give up his plans for redeveloping the complex. By drafting papers within 24 hours after receiving...

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Fair-Market Tenants and Condominium Conversions

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Jeffrey R. Metz A recent newspaper article reports that between 2009 and 2012, a total of 117 rental buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn were converted to cooperative or condominium ownership.1 Many of the units contained therein were deregulated. This article explores what rights tenants of these units have vis-à-vis rent-regulated tenants when a building is being converted, if and how fair-market tenants can obtain benefits similar to those enjoyed by rent-regulated tenants upon a conversion, and...

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Fending off Landlord Retaliation

The New York Times

By: Ronda Kaysen January 24, 2015 Fending off Landlord Retaliation Can a landlord retaliate against a market-rent tenant or a rent-stabilized tenant for joining a tenants association in a mainly rent-stabilized building? The possible retaliation would be to raise the rent drastically or not renew the lease for the market-rate tenant, or to fail to retain a preferential rent in the case of the rent-stabilized tenant who currently benefits from one. Washington Heights, Manhattan Market-rate tenants have few protections. A...

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Slip and Fall

Habitat Magazine

By: Frank Lovece In 2010, the board of the St. Tropez condominium at 340 East 64th Street in Manhattan held its annual meeting in an unfinished space. It may have saved on renting a hall, but it wasn’t the best choice the board made that year. The condo was later sued by a resident who had tripped over an unseen hole in the paper-covered bumpy floor. “A lot of annual meetings are held in gyms,” says attorney Adam Leitman Bailey,...

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Representing a Potential Buyer, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves Its Investor-Client From Losing Millions of Dollars by Relying on Seller (Mis)Representations

Adam Leitman Bailey’s due diligence team was hired to investigate whether it, as a future owner, could demolish an Upper West Side Single Room Occupancy (“SRO”) building. The asking price was remarkably low compared to similar buildings in the area but with that bargain price came certain representations by the seller. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. uncovered the seller’s secrets. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. found that the building was operated and managed by a court-appointed 7A Administrator because the seller abandoned...

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Finding Individual Liability for Sponsor’s Principals And Sponsor’s Waiver of The Notice Requirement Under The Offering Plan

Real Estate Weekly

By Massimo F. D’Angelo Recently, in The Board of Managers of 266 West 115th Street Condominium v. 266 West 115thStreet, LLC, et al., 2014 NY Slip Op 33047 (Sup. Ct. 2014) – a precedent-setting decision on two separate issues – the New York State Supreme Court held that: (i) the principal of a Sponsor can be found to be personally liable for construction defect claims under a veil piercing or alter ego theory; and (ii) a Sponsor risks waiving an...

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Land Use Litigation Victory: Using Victory in Court, Proposing Legislation, Conducting Rallies, and Mobilizing Political Support and Media Attention, Save Harlem Association Obtains Winning & Avoids Settlement

One of the largest real estate developers in the United States, Kimco Realty, sent termination and demolition notices to the business owners who worked in Harlem’s longest building. All of the commercial tenant’s leases either had expired or had demolition clauses allowing the developer to evict the commercial tenants. The building in question was one block west of the cultural epicenter of Harlem on world famous 125th Street, home of numerous institutions key to African American culture, notably the Apollo...

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A Lender’s Duty To Investigate Its Borrower

Mortgage Banking Magazine

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio ……………….. Until recently, a mortgage lender preparing to give a loan needed only to conduct a basic search of the title and records of the subject property. A lender was not required to search into the background and financial status of a borrower to ensure that the borrower was legitimate and would be able to repay the loan. As long as the borrower had recorded title and there were no senior recorded...

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Amendments to UCC Law and How it Affects Major Lender’s in Cooperative Lending

By Rosemary Liuzzo Mohamed Important amendments to the New York Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) were enacted as of December 17, 2014. The amendments specifically amended Articles 1, 7 and 9. As attorneys for major lenders we are particularly concerned with amendments made to Article 9 §9-503 (a)(4), “Sufficiency of debtor’s name.” The new law, which is applied to all UCC’s filed on or after December 17, 2014, reads as follows, “If the debtor is an individual to whom NY State...

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Principal Of A Sponsor May Be Held Separately Liable Where It Executes The Certification

New York Law Journal

By Scott E. Mollen   Condominiums—Alleged Construction Defects -Since Sponsor Made Repeated Repairs, There Was A Triable Issue of Fact As to Whether and to What Extent Sponsor Waived the Offering Plan’s Written Notice Requirement A CONDOMINIUM Board of Managers (board) commenced an action against a sponsor-developer (sponsor) of a residential building and other defendants (“A”), whom the board alleged were “alter egos of the sponsor.” The defendants had moved to dismiss the complaint, pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) (7). The...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Named One of New York’s Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys by the Commercial Observer

The Commercial Observer

  Attorneys are behind the scenes of any real estate transaction. They counsel their clients on land use, zoning and a labyrinth of abstruse regulations. Commercial Observer felt that any of these attorneys could have found his or her way onto our Power 100 list, but we’ve chosen to showcase them here, since they, too, deserve to be acknowledged for their contributions to New York’s real estate ecosystem.   Adam Leitman Bailey Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. Adam Leitman Bailey, the loquacious head...

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A Practitioner’s Guide to Litigating Party Walls

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman A Practitioner’s Guide to Litigating Party Walls One developer-client once told us, “horse racing is not the sport of kings—litigation is.” During the greatest high end real estate market in the history of our country, the ultra wealthy or the corporate kings have battled in our courts for every inch of land. Because only the wealthiest own townhouses in Manhattan and Brooklyn, these plots­—built 50 feet by 50 feet—during the time of author...

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Legal Ace Adam Bailey Breaking The Rules To Make New Ones

Real Estate Weekly

By Dan Orlando Adam Leitman Bailey’s birth certificate indicates that he is barely middle aged. His physical stamina indicates that he is barely 25. His accomplishments and legal expertise indicate that he is a man 30 years his senior. Now one of the most respected commercial real estate attorneys in not only New York City, but arguably the country, Bailey’s current value to the business world is the result of two muses from his youth that eventually became intertwined. “So,...

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On Appeal, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Tenant Right of First Refusal of Rent Stabilized Apartment

  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. won a four-year battle on behalf of a 63-year old rent-stabilized tenant against one of New York City’s most disreputable landlords at the First Department Appellate Division, where the Court unanimously reversed the lower Court’s decision, granting her summary judgment on all causes of action, including attorneys’ fees. The landlord, who is currently under investigation by the Attorney General’s office for allegedly using ruthless tactics against rent-stabilized tenants, was under an undisputed contractual duty to provide...

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When a Co-op Neighbor Breaks the Law

The New York Times

April 25, 2015 By Ronda Kaysen A Shareholder Commits a Crime We recently learned that one of our shareholders pleaded guilty last year to defrauding the government of more than $165,000 in a 9/11 scheme. It’s particularly ugly to many of us because of what he took when others lost so much. Do we have any grounds to get this guy out of the co-op? Hastings-on-Hudson, New York Your neighbor might have committed a crime, but that fact alone does...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Ensures Delinquent Corporate Debtor Repays Substantial Debt to Manhattan-Based Bank

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was contacted by a bank based out of Manhattan to aggressively pursue a delinquent corporate borrower and its guarantor of a commercial loan. Attorneys at the firm conceived and executed a strategy to ensure that the debt would be paid without expensive and protracted litigation. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. filed a motion for summary judgment in lieu of filing a complaint. This strategy had two substantial benefits for Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client. First, it saved...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Petitions U.S. Supreme Court to Protect Homeowners From Municipal Planning Board’s Disregard of Construction Set-Back Restrictions

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has filed a Petition for a Writ of Certiorari to the U.S. Supreme Court to prohibit a Municipal Planning Commission from violating the Contract Clause of the U.S. Constitution by modifying deed restrictions adopted by the commission in a way that would disrupt the neighborhood of the long-time homeowners that the firm represents. When the neighborhood had been laid out in the 1960s, the local planning commission had adopted a subdivision plan which set forth carefully...

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Chambers and Partners Recognizes Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. as a Leading Law Firm 2015

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is pleased to announce that the firm has been noted by Chambers and Partners as one of the leading Real Estate law firms in New York. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is one of four Real Estate law firms with less than 30 attorneys to make the list and the only Real Estate litigation firm to receive this honor. “We may not be the most deserving to receive the award but we are certainly the most grateful,” explained Adam Leitman...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Borrower’s Motion to Vacate a Judgement of Foreclosure and Sale for Title Company

In Boxwood Funding, LLC v. Fimag Realty Corp., et al., Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully defeated Defendant Fimag’s motion to vacate the Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale that was previously entered in this foreclosure action, under which judgment Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client took title to the premises after the foreclosure sale.    Defendant Fimag brought a motion to vacate a Judgment of Foreclosure sale arguing that the sale is defective and should be vacated, as it allegedly took place...

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Exceptions to the Due on Sale Clause

The Due on Sale Clause can be found in most mortgages and simply states that a loan is due in full upon the sale or transfer of ownership of the secured property. There are, however, several exceptions to this clause, most involving written notice to the lender in advance. The Garn St. Germain Act at 12 USC Section 1701J-3 provides the following exceptions which should not trigger the Due on Sale Clause with respect to a real property loan secured...

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Application of the Adverse Possession Amendments

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio In 2008, the New York Legislature enacted sweeping changes to Article 5 of the Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (RPAPL) that governs the circumstances under which title to real property may be acquired by adverse possession. The legislation was intended to overturn the Court of Appeals decision in Walling v. Prysbylo,1 in which the court had reaffirmed the ancient rule that an adverse possessor’s knowledge of the true owner would not...

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How To Deal With Bed Bugs, Noisy Neighbors and Other NYC Apartment Problems

Time Out New York Magazine

By Leah Faye Cooper June 5, 2015 Ten common apartment problems fixed—because you moved here to follow your dreams, not breathe in the mold behind the wallpaper Mold. Crazy roommates. Bed bugs. Neighbors who may or may not be harboring a fugitive. The list of gripes with NYC apartments is endless. Throw in complicated, vague housing laws and a lack of cooperation from your real estate agent, and it can be nearly impossible to understand your rights as a tenant (or know whom to...

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Setting the Law Straight on Terminating Easements

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey At the present time, finding real estate property to buy has been compared to finding the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot. Buyers of land have become more creative and aggressive than ever before in trying to develop property for an anxious public. This search has resulted in a demand to discover options to remove restrictions on property—including easements. This article examines the different means to extinguish an easement. An easement is “an interest in land in...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Winning Settlement For New York City’s Best Cheesesteak Maker

Following the construction of its Financial District outpost, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client –a cheesesteak maker who has been hailed as the best in New York City – general contractor filed two separate Mechanic’s Lien for allegedly unpaid construction work that was performed at the subject premises. As in most commercial leases, the client’s lease with its landlord contained a provision whereby if a lien against the client resulting from construction work, or some other encumbrance was filed on the...

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49-Year-Old Brooklyn Ground Lease Gets Signed

Transaction began when clients asked what to do with their vacant dirt lot in Coney Island, Brooklyn. Knowing how the ocean area properties are undergoing a rebirth after Hurricane Sandy, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. partner Jack Erdos suggested to the clients to market it as a development site or to consider a ground lease for long-term income stream while keeping the equity for future generations. They considered the advice and a local real estate broker submitted an offer for a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Protects Mortgage for Lender Defeating Fraud Allegations

In Salm v. Champion Mortgage, et al., Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. conceived, negotiated, and orchestrated a pre-trial settlement, in which Champion Mortgage’s reverse mortgage up to the maximum principal amount of $825,000 was declared a valid interest secured by a property in Staten Island, New York, despite the borrower alleging that he was fraudulently tricked into executing the reverse mortgage.     The elderly and ill borrower commenced this action seeking to invalidate the mortgage as against the premises, claiming...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Takes Over Rent-Control Succession Case Mid-Trial; Obtains Judgment of Possession for Landlord

In New York, through a doctrine called succession, a rent-controlled apartment can be passed down from generation to generation or to certain family members, if, with certain exceptions, (i) the tenant of record and succession claimant share a sufficient level of consanguinity and (ii) the tenant of record and succession claimant lived in the apartment together for at least two years immediately before the tenant of record’s death or permanent vacatur from the apartment. Each succession can result in an...

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TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule and How it Will Benefit Borrowers

Beginning October 3, 2015 the new TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure Rule will be implemented changing the way we have been conducting bank closings over the last several years. The new rule will replace the current Initial Good Faith Estimate as well as the HUD Settlement Statement and Truth In Lending Disclosure, both of which are received just before or at closing, with two new forms called the loan estimate and the closing disclosure. The loan estimate and the closing disclosure have...

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Top real estate lawyer makes silver-screen consulting debut with “99 Homes”

The Real Deal

September 18, 2015 By Mark Maurer   Move over, John Grisham. Hollywood’s got a new go-to legal beagle. Real estate attorney Adam Leitman Bailey made his silver-screen consulting debut Thursday night with the premiere of “99 Homes,” the new foreclosure-crisis film starring Michael Shannon and Andrew Garfield. In the movie, Shannon even spouts Bailey’s stock phrase: “Don’t get emotional about real estate.”  The movie follows a foreclosure victim (Garfield) in 2008-era Orlando, Fla., who goes to work for a real...

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New Sprinkler-Notification Law Could Require Reissuing Proprietary Leases

By Frank Lovece Dec. 26, 2014 — A New York State law that went into effect Dec. 3, requiring all residential leases to contain a notice about the building’s sprinkler system, appears to mandate that even co-op proprietary leases must be amended to reflect the language change. The new law also impacts leases offered by condominium homeowners renting their apartments as well as subleases offered by rental tenants and by co-op shareholders. The addition to the Section 231 of the...

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Landlord-Tenant—Summary Holdover Proceeding—Apartment Was Not Subject To Rent-Stabilization—Tenant’s Use Of Commercial Space Did Not Make the Space a “Lawful Housing Accommodation”

New York Law Journal

September 16, 2015 By Scott E. Mollen   A landlord had commenced a summary holdover proceeding, claiming that the subject tenancy was unregulated and had been terminated by a 30-day notice. The tenant countered that “there were, in the recent past, six apartments in the subject building, and that she is therefore a rent stabilized tenant entitled to a renewal lease.” The court explained: In order to be subject to rent stabilization, an apartment must, among other things, be located...

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Despite Tenant’s Ownership of a Home and Taxes Filed at a Different Address, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevailed In Establishing Primary Residence

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully defended a Manhattan rent-stabilized tenant in a non-primary residence proceeding. After a contested trial, the court dismissed the landlord’s petition. The court held that the landlord failed to meet its burden of proof to demonstrate that the tenant did not primarily reside in the subject premises (i.e. maintain an “ongoing, substantial, physical nexus with the controlled premises for actual living purposes”). Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client moved into the subject apartment almost twenty years ago...

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Millionaire Loses In Feud With Neighbors Over Fence

The New York Post

By Julia Marsh February , 2016   A Manhattan judge told an Upper East Side millionaire that he can’t stop his town-house neighbors from putting up a new fence on a foot of property he has occupied for more than 20 years. The deed and even a visual inspection show that the iron fence around Philippe Delouvrier’s 92nd Street property encroaches 12 inches into the property line of neighbors Ravi and Suzanne Yadav. Delouvrier had claimed “squatter’s rights” because he...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Closes Multimillion-Dollar Commercial Building

Attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented the seller of a multimillion-dollar commercial building on Third Avenue in Manhattan. The property, which contains both commercial and residential tenants, was in high demand given its location in one of Manhattan’s most exclusive and desirable neighborhoods. Despite numerous obstacles faced by our team during the course of the transaction, which included ongoing litigation with several rent-stabilized tenants living in the building, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys carefully tailored the contract to protect...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Appeal of an Illegal Subletting Holdover Proceeding Utilizing the Novel Argument That Protracted Negotiations Extended the Cure Period

In 2008, the client saw an advertisement for a cooperative apartment for sale in Brooklyn. She learned from the seller’s broker that the apartment was being sold directly by the sponsor. This meant that if she purchased it for investment purposes, she would be permitted to rent out the apartment without the need to seek board approval and with no obligation to pay sublet fees to the board. The client represented to the seller’s broker that the purchase was an...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Named Best Law Firm in New York 2016

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has been ranked in the 2016 U.S. News  & World Report “Best Law Firms.” Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is one of only six New York Real Estate Law Firms with under 30 attorneys to be selected as a “Best Law Firm” by U.S. News and World Report. The U.S.News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” rankings are based on a rigorous evaluation process that includes the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer review from leading attorneys...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Delivers Near Million Dollar Settlement For Pizza Restaurant Despite Client’s Lacking Legal Right to Possession in Foreclosed Building

Facts Client-pizzeria entered into a ten-year commercial lease with the individual/owner for the ground floor space of a building in Williamsburg, to operate a pizzeria restaurant. During the time that the client’s pizzeria was booming, the building in which the restaurant was located began to lean out of plumb by no fewer than ten inches. Such leaning out of plumb, which the client believed was caused by the owner’s negligence in maintaining the building.  Subsequently, with four years left on...

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Chambers USA 2016 Recognizes Adam Leitman Bailey as a Leading Real Estate Lawyer

Adam Leitman Bailey has been selected by Chambers and Partners to achieve ranking in “Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business” and has been recognized as one of New York’s leading real estate lawyers for 2016. This is one of the highest honors a real estate attorney can achieve in his career. Adam Leitman Bailey is one of only two attorneys to receive this honor with less than 30 attorneys in their firm. Chambers and Partners hailed Adam Leitman Bailey as...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains First-of-Its-Kind Appellate Ruling Enabling Condominium to Defend Its Ownership of Unit

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. obtained a first-of-its-kind Appellate Division, First Department decision allowing a Manhattan condominium to defeat a first mortgage foreclosure and protect its interest in a condominium unit. Because New York law provides that first mortgage lenders have priority over condominium charge liens, where a unit owner stops paying both her mortgage and her condominium charges, condominiums must often wait years without payment and then receive nothing while a mortgage foreclosure slowly winds its way through the courts....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Lands Largest Settlement in New York History for a Restaurant Opened Less Than Seven Months

New York Law Journal

Restaurant Negotiates Deals Of $2.5M in Crane Collapse By Jeff Storey June 29, 2016 Owners of a recently opened restaurant shut down when the collapse of construction crane heavily damaged its building have won almost $2.5 million in settlements. The incident occurred on March 15, 2008 at 303 East 51st St. where a condominium was being built. Along with property damage, seven people were killed, and more than a dozen injured. No one was injured at the Crave Ceviche Bar...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Only Real Estate Law Firm Awarded Best Places to Work 2016

Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. has been ranked as one of New York City’s Best Places to Work 2016 by Crain’s Magazine. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is one of only six law firms to receive ranking within Crain’s reputable Top 100 List. This year was more competitive than ever with Crain’s receiving a record number of applications representing various industries throughout New York City. Results are complied by an independent research partner and then published by Crain’s New York Business. This is the third year Adam...

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Super Lawyers “Rising Stars” Awards More Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Women Real Estate Attorneys Than Any Other Law Firm in New York

Each year, The New York Times includes Super Lawyer’s annual list of the “Top Women” attorneys. This year, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s named more “Rising Stars” female attorneys than any other law firm in New York. Our top female attorneys included: Jackie Halpern Weinstein, Partner, Foreclosures and Title Insurance Rosemary Liuzzo Mohamed, Partner, Lender Representation Jamie Schare Friedland, Landlord-Tenant Law and Courtney J. Lerias, Real Estate Litigation. Every year, Super Lawyers evaluates lawyers across the country for its annual list of top...

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Super Lawyers Name Adam Leitman Bailey as Top 100 Attorney in New York

Super Lawyers names Adam Leitman Bailey as one of the Top 100 attorneys in New York for 2016. Out of the Top 100, Adam Leitman Bailey is one of only seven attorneys from a Real Estate Law Firm.  

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Judge Gerald Lebovits and Jeffrey Metz Team Up to Author NY Residential Landlord-Tenant Law and Procedure

NYSBA

December 2016 NY Residential Landlord-Tenant Law 2016-2017 Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award      Authors include Hon. Gerald Lebovits and Jeffrey R. Metz, Esq.. Key Benefits: • Understand the statutory framework for landlord-tenant summary proceedings. • Enhance your skills dealing with landlord-tenant disputes. Product Description: New York residential landlord-tenant law is daunting to newcomers and the experienced alike, given its divergent statutory framework, discordant case law, and emotion-laden disputes involving homes, money, and the charged landlord-tenant relationship. This practice...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Secures an Order Dismissing a Meritless Action Brought Against a Condominium Board of Managers by a Unit Owner

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. defended a Kings County Condominium in an action brought against it by a unit owner, relating to her allegedly defective private elevator. Specifically, the unit owner claimed that the board breached the Condominium’s Offering Plan and engaged in fraud by failing to provide the unit owner with an elevator in accordance with the terms of the Offering Plan. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. moved to dismiss the case on the grounds that the plaintiff had failed to...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Does the Unthinkable to Provide Safety for Fellow Residents in Co-op and Rightfully Evicts Dangerous Illegal Occupant

When a low-income housing cooperative sought Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s help after a tenant illegally sublet their unit, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully, and creatively, defended the cooperative and obtained an eviction, thus clearing the premises from further harmful activity. The managing agent received numerous complaints of animal cruelty and repugnant smells originating from the unit. The tenant, a resident of a subsidized apartment, clearly did not reside there and was lying about the presence of an...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Summarily Evicts ‘Game the System,’ Squatter, Paving the Way for the Client’s Development of Its Mixed-Use Building

After several other prior law firms retained by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client – one of the country’s largest and leading title insurance companies – were persistently rebuffed at restoring its insured to possession of its mixed-use Brooklyn building by a long-time squatter that was a professional at ‘gaming the system,’ which derailed the insured’s development plans, it turned to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., New York City’s premiere real estate litigation firm. Facts Upon being hired, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Navigates Tax Liens and Forces Closing

Attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented the buyer of a professional office space in a luxury building on the Upper East Side of Manhattan whose contract of sale was in jeopardy after a lien and judgment search revealed federal and New York State tax liens that the seller was unable to fully satisfy out of the proceeds from the sale of the unit. Immediately upon learning of the tax liens encumbering the unit, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. called the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Defends Challenge to Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Determination To Permit Expansion

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prevailed for its client against a legal challenge to the determination of the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission (“Landmarks”) to approve the client’s expansion plans. The client, a Brooklyn-based developer, acquired a historic Park Slope mansion in 2015 for $9.5 million. The client proposed to dramatically expand the building and convert it from a single-family home into eight residential units. The plans included adding a new floor to the top of the building that would...

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Analyzing Easement Laws and Cases in the States East of the Mississippi River

Probate & PropertyChambers and Partners

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Israel Katz   This article analyzes the laws of easements in the 26 states that lie east of the Mississippi River, including the various methods for their creation, their nature, and scope. In researching and writing this article, the authors limited their research to appellate cases in each of these 26 states using a Westlaw search dating back to 1874. An easement is an interest in land in the possession of another which (a) entitles...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., Brings Owner’s Own Use Proceeding and Obtains Judgment of Possession of Rent-Stabilized Apartment for Landlord

In New York, if certain conditions are present, the owner of a rent-stabilized apartment may choose not to renew a tenant’s lease and to seek possession of the apartment if the owner intends to occupy the apartment personally or if the apartment will be occupied by a member of the owner’s family. While a powerful tool in a landlord’s arsenal, every step, from planning to trial, must be executed flawlessly to be successful. Recently, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was called...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Corrects MERS Error and Records a Rescission of an Erroneously Filed Satisfaction Without a Court Order

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s lender client held a mortgage secured by a commercial property in Manhattan in the principal amount of nine million five hundred thousand dollars. In connection with the borrower’s refinance, the lender was asked for an assignment of the mortgage, however, a satisfaction of the mortgage was already erroneously recorded into the chain of title by MERS. Less than one week before the refinance closing date, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained to vacate the previously recorded...

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Mixed-Use Brooklyn Building Declared Not Subject to Rent-Regulation After Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Demonstrates at Trial That Building Contained Fewer Than Six Residential Units

For a landlord, the difference in collectible rents, building value, and other rights between a non rent-regulated residential building and a building subject to rent-regulation can be enormous. In New York, with certain exceptions, buildings that contain six or more residential units may be subject to rent-stabilization, while buildings that contain fewer than six residential units may be exempt from rent-stabilization. A landlord recently purchased a three-story building in Brooklyn believing that the building—and its residential units—was not rent-regulated because...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Defends Against Multimillion-Dollar Lawsuit Complaining That Owner Unreasonably Withheld Its Consent To A Sublease, While Simultaneously Orchestrating $14.5 Million Sale of Subject Property

Factual And Procedural Background When the net lessee/tenant of a lucrative commercial net lease sued the net lessor/owner of the subject property – two substantial parcels of commercial property directly in the heart of Astoria – for, among other things, $7 million in lost profits from a proposed sublease to which the owner allegedly unreasonably withheld its consent, the owner retained Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to defend its interests. Concurrently with the lawsuit, the tenant filed a lis pendens –...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., Prevails in RPAPL § 881 Proceeding; Client Gains Access to Neighboring Property for Construction

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., prevailed for its client in a contested proceeding to obtain a license to enter upon a neighbor’s property to install protective measures necessary to allow the client’s construction project to proceed safely as required by the New York City Building Code. The client, a Brooklyn-based developer, acquired a historic Park Slope mansion in 2015 for $9.5 million. The client proposed to dramatically expand the building and convert it from a single-family home into eight residential units. ...

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When a Neighbor Brings Home a Pit Bull

The New York Times

January 2017 Ask Real Estate By Ronda Kaysen Q. I am the president of the board of a co-op in East Harlem, Manhattan, that permits dogs of any size or breed. But after a rental tenant got a pit bull, the board received several complaints from residents who say the dog whines and pounds the floor. One is terrified of the breed and complains almost daily, calling for the dog to be removed. What am I supposed to do? I...

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A Practitioner’s Guide to Understanding Interest

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey, Dov Treiman, and Carly Clinton While prohibited in some religious traditions,1 interest is one of the most pervasive concepts in the American economy. Seemingly simple on its surface, it presents a bewildering amount of complexity as soon as one digs into its legal implications. Real Estate practitioners must know the rules of interest when negotiating a mortgage or charging rent to knowing the full monetary stakes of litigation. When Interest Attaches In New York litigation, there...

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Seven Secrets to Drafting An Effective Commercial Lease Default Clause

The Huffington Post

By Adam Leitman Bailey An effective commercial lease will dictate the future relationship between landlord and tenant. The more clauses forcing the commercial tenant to comply with its obligations, the better chance the landlord will have in not only have a successful relationship but also ensuring that the rent is paid and the tenant behaves. Below are some of the lesser known, creative, clauses used to ensure either payment of rent and compliance or a swift eviction of the commercial...

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Fortis not responsible for $2M in defects caused by prior developer, Judge says in ruling against 20 Bayard Street residents

The Real Deal

By Will Parker April 26, 2017 The company bought the condo building’s unsold units in 2011 after Isaac Hager took the project into bankruptcy. UPDATED, April 26, 4:00 p.m.: A court decision in Brooklyn last week will let Fortis Property Group  get away with selling allegedly faulty condominiums in Williamsburg, for the simple reason that Fortis wasn’t the one that built them in the first place. When developer Isaac Hager’s company went into bankruptcy at the 62-unit Bayard Views Condominium at 20 Bayard Street on...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes New Law, Defeating Successor Sponsor Construction Defect Claim Against Developer Who Bought Units From Bankrupt Sponsor

In a decision of first impression, the Brooklyn Supreme Court held that a successor condominium sponsor is not liable for building defects caused by the original sponsor’s construction of the condominium. Justice Lawrence Knipel threw out a condominium board’s claim seeking to impose construction defect liability on a developer who purchased the interest of the condominium’s bankrupt original sponsor under a Chapter 11 Plan. The Bayard Views Condominium, a 62-unit luxury building overlooking McCarren Park in Brooklyn, was completed just...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Turns Down the Noise in Epic Battle to Do Justice for Family

When a young family of four sought Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s help after suffering from unbearable noise and sound vibration, and a condominium board unresponsive to their complaints, on the brink of trial, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully spearheaded a joint settlement agreement with the board and the owners of the apartment above the family to make substantial structural and design modifications to the floors and ceilings of the respective apartments in order to mitigate the noise and sound vibrations...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Recaptures Multimillion Dollar SoHo Loft From Longtime Tenant-Artist by Establishing That the Unit Was Illegal for Human Occupancy

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a well-known landlord developer, purchased a five-story, twelve-unit prewar building in the heart of SoHo’s Cast Iron Historic District. Following its acquisition, it asked Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to perform a review of all of the building’s apartment dimensions for purposes of determining whether the subject apartments were in compliance with local zoning regulations and applicable ordinances. Upon its initial review of the building’s plans and specifications, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. immediately discovered that one...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Retroactive Application of Anti- SLAPP Action After Victory on Defamation and Malicious Prosecution Claims for Cooperative

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a Cooperative to pursue a defamation claim brought against a former Board member and a shareholder for posting and disseminating libelous and defamatory remarks against the Cooperative Board of Directors. The Defendants counterclaimed alleging “lack of probable cause” and “intimidation” and seeking unspecified damages. The Cooperative filed a motion for partial summary judgment, seeking dismissal of certain of the affirmative defenses and the counterclaims, to the extent they allege malicious prosecution or abuse...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Recognized as Leading New York Law Firm in Chambers USA 2017 Rankings

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is one of only three real estate law firms with fewer than 30 attorneys to have its firm ranked by the prestigious Chambers and Partners. Chambers also awarded the firm’s founder and managing partner, Adam Leitman Bailey, commending his excellence in condominium law and real estate litigation. Since 1990, Chambers has published the leading directories of the legal profession. Clients trust them to find exactly the right lawyer or law-firm. Chambers and Partners is a highly...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., Successfully Defends Condominium Board and Managing Agent Against Serial Litigant

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., successfully defended its clients – a condominium board of managers, individual residential members of the board, and the condominium’s managing agent – against a serial litigant seeking millions of dollars of damages for alleged breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty. A recent decision by the Supreme Court in New York County, which granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss, is the latest victory for Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients in litigation stretching back ten years....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Title Closer’s Checklist, Adopted by New York Land Title Association

To prevent fraud and to decrease mistakes made at the closing table, the New York Land Title Association voted to adopt the “Title Closer’s Checklist” drafted by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Checklist for Title Closers Has identification been reviewed for all parties signing documents to be insured? Do you have a copy of the ID’s for the file? Are they valid and government issued? If not, call company counsel to make sure acceptable forms of ID are reviewed.Did you complete...

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When Email Exchanges Become Binding Contracts

New York Law Journal

August 8, 2017 by Adam Leitman Bailey and John Desiderio In Stonehill Capital Management v. Bank of the West, 28 NY3d 439 (2016), the New York Court of Appeals held that an agreement to sell a distressed loan, in the auction loan trading market, was enforceable without the execution of a formal written contract. While Stonehill may simply reflect the court’s pragmatic acknowledgement of the trading practices that prevail in fast-paced loan trading, there has been concern expressed by some...

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Condo Board’s Long Legal Nightmare Is Over

Habitat Magazine

August 10, 2017 By Bill Norris Aug. 10, 2017 — Courts rule that sponsor is responsible for faulty construction. Construction defects can have a long shelf life. As the condominium board at 50 Madison Avenue has learned, the legal ramifications of faulty construction can live on for a decade, or more. But based on a new court ruling, this board has reason to hope that its long legal nightmare is finally over. In a 2009 decision, an appellate court ruled...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., Saves Family Business by Uncovering and Demonstrating That Previously Misinterpreted Century-Old Easement Prevented Business’ Trucking Route From Being Closed Off by Adjacent Development

A training facility for a professional sports team was being built in Brooklyn, New York. During the building process, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients who ran a business making plastics for garbage bags received an eviction notice. In existence for over 70 years, the owners were told that their trucks could no longer access their property to service the factory. They were also told that their trucks and materials needed to be moved, and combined with the lack of access,...

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Battle Over Chelsea Townhouse Reflects War Being Waged in New York City’s Historic Districts

The Wall Street Journal

By Josh Barbanel September 12, 2016 A stately townhouse in Chelsea that dates to the 1830s has become the latest flashpoint in a dispute over how best to preserve homes in New York City’s recognized historic districts. Many neighbors want to keep homes in these quiet, leafy neighborhoods exactly as they are. And many architects and developers want to restore them by building upward and backward into rear gardens to add more space. The most recent conflict: plans by [firm],...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s“Watershed Case” Changes Condominium Development

“I don’t think I’d ever received a letter like it,” read the Trump Soho memo that tripped up a criminal investigation. According to The Real Deal on October 04, 2017, the Trump Soho saga has become a “watershed case” in the world of condo litigation. As part of an investigation by TRD last year, condominium attorneys said that developers are now far more reluctant to disclose sales information to buyers’ attorneys, for fear of legal repercussions if they turn out...

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Congratulations to the Top Rated Litigators in The American Lawyer

Four Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys been selected as 2017 Top Rated Litigators in The American Lawyer. Our 2017 top rated litigators include: Adam Leitman Bailey: Actively at the helm of the law firm he built from scratch, Adam Leitman Bailey practices residential and commercial real estate law John M. Desiderio: Partner and head of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Real Estate Litigation Practice Group Colin E. Kaufman: Partner and General Counsel to the firm Jeffrey Metz: Partner and head of...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Maximizes and Collects Surplus Money Funds for Condominium Board After Bank Foreclosure Sale of Condominium Unit

After a years-long battle, including a bank’s foreclosure proceeding against a condominium unit and several bankruptcy filings by the unit owners, a frustrated board of managers of a New York City condominium turned to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., for help. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. then enforced the condominium’s lien for unpaid common charges against the unit and obtained 100% of the post-foreclosure sale surplus monies for the condominium. Following years of delays, the condominium board—which was owed hundreds of thousands...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins $1.2 Million Judgment on Behalf of Small Brokerage Firm, Wins on Appeal, and Gets the Judgment Paid in Full Within Months

Abraham Lincoln once said, “Capital is only the fruit of labor, and never could have existed if labor has not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” In this case, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully fought on behalf of a small business that performed all of the labor in procuring the purchase of a large commercial building at a prime location in Manhattan, while some very wealthy and powerful defendants attempted to deny...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Assists With Drafting the Foreclosure Motion Templates Promulgated for Use by Administrative Order 356/17

Jackie Halpern Weinstein, Esq. assisted in drafting the Foreclosure Motion Templates promulgated by Administrative Order 356/17 of the Chief Administrative Judge of the Courts, effective January 1, 2018, for use in residential mortgage foreclosure proceedings in Supreme Court in cases where a homeowner defendant has defaulted. The templates are an applauded result, in part, of great efforts by the members of the New York City Bar Mortgage Foreclosure Task Force to improve the foreclosure process in the state of New...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Condo Deposit Refunds for Two Clients Totaling Over $10 Million, Including Interest

In 2017, in matters relating to two different clients, and separate condominiums offered to the public by two different sponsors, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. showed how reading the fine print in a condominium offering plan can assist in helping a purchaser terminate a contract to purchase units that were not yet constructed when the contract was signed — and not incur any penalty for doing so. In each case, the client came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Judgment for Small NY Brokerage After Years-Long Court Battle

Leaders in the Law

January 28, 2018 In November 2017, lawyers from Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. (Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.) secured a $1.2 million judgment on behalf of a real estate brokerage firm that was defrauded of its commission by commercial property buyers in a scheme dating back nearly a decade. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Real Estate Litigation Practice Group Partner and Chair John M. Desiderio and a Litigation Group trial lawyer represented the plaintiff, which was marketing a large commercial building in midtown...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Unanimous Verdict Awarding Clients Money Judgment for Their Damages

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients invested their life’s savings to become partners in an established furniture business. When it became apparent that the owner of the business was dealing in counterfeit merchandise, was self-dealing and “cooking the books,” they withdrew. The owner refused to return their money. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. sued and the owner countersued for money he said the clients owed him under their contract. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients had made substantial payments in cash and the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Works Hard to Correct Previous Agent’s Application Errors and Help Business Keep Hundreds of Thousands in Tax Benefits

On December 6, 2016, Mayor de Blasio, the Department of Finance and Housing Preservation and Development issued suspension notices to owners of more than 3,000 multiple dwellings that failed to comply with 421a tax benefit requirements. The notices gave owners one year, until January 5, 2018, to correct their mistakes and omissions or suffer suspension of tax benefits – or worse, pay back the tax benefits previously reaped. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, the owner of one of the targeted...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails Using Pictures Proving a Substantial Rehabilitation Avoiding Rent Regulation

A client came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. looking to evict a troublesome tenant whose lease had expired in a building that had been gut renovated. Under the law, such buildings are free from rent regulation if certain criteria are met—that the building is in dilapidated condition and that the landlord replaced at least 75% of the building systems, including, at the very least, all walls, floors, and ceilings. However, proving those criteria entails providing a good number of mind-numbing...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Litigators Win More Jury Trial Cases Than Any Other Real Estate Law Firm

Many law firms call themselves litigators but have never won a single trial or jury trial. The trial attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. have won eight jury trials in the last decade and beyond—more than any other real estate law firm.

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State Supreme Court Judge Gerald Lebovits and Dov Treiman Team Up to Author New York Residential Landlord-Tenant Law and Procedure

NYSBA

December 2017 New York Residential Landlord-Tenant Law 2017-2018 Otto L. Walter Distinguished Writing Award  NEW YORK RESIDENTIAL LANDLORD – TENANT LAW – 2017-2018 Authors include Hon. Gerald Lebovits and Dov Treiman, Esq.. Key Benefits: • Understand the statutory framework for landlord-tenant summary proceedings. • Enhance your skills dealing with landlord-tenant disputes. Product Description: New York residential landlord-tenant law is daunting to newcomers and the experienced alike, given its divergent statutory framework, discordant case law, and emotion-laden disputes involving homes, money, and...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Shuts Down Prior Partners’ Suit For Lost Profits in Record Time

Under New York law, a notice of pendency is a powerful provisional remedy afforded to plaintiffs claiming an interest in real property. Once a notice of pendency is filed against a property, it makes it virtually impossible for the owners of that property to sell it or obtain a mortgage. The enormous leverage wielded by plaintiffs who file a notice of pendency cannot be understated. However, this power is not without limits.  As a recent case handled by Adam Leitman...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Case of First Impression: Cooperatives Required to Do Repairs Despite Shareholder’s Alleged Responsibility in Corporate Documents

Adam Leitman Bailey represented a cooperative owner complaining of repairs needed to her apartment. The cooperative building argued that since these repairs based on the corporate documents are the unit owner’s responsibility, the cooperative is not liable to do the repairs. Both the trial court and Appellate Court agreed, declaring: The cooperative, as statutory owner, is obligated in the first instance to remove Housing Code violations (see, McMunn v Steppingstone Mgt. Corp., 131 Misc 2d 340, 500 N.Y.S.2d 219 [1986])....

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Court Finds Building Not Subject to Rent Stabilization Based on Photographic Evidence Showing Substantial Renovations Had Been Performed

New York Law Journal

March 27, 2018 by Scott E. Mollen This discusses “884 Madison Street LLC v. Aurello and Tsivicos,” where the court found the subject premises were not subject to rent stabilization because the petitioner established by a preponderance of the evidence that a substantial rehabilitation of the building had been performed, and “Matter of O’Connor and Sons Home Improvement v. Acevedo,” where a Zoning Board of Appeals’ denial of variances was annulled. Landlord-Tenant—Holdover Proceeding—Vacant Building Was in Hazardous Condition—“Substantial” Renovation Done...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prepares Forms for New Disclosure Law and Smoking Policy

By Rachel Sigmund McGinley Effective January 1, 2018, Section 727 of the Business Corporation Law (BCL) requires all New York condominium and co-op boards to disseminate to all unit owners/shareholders, at least once annually, a written report of any contracts entered into by the board during the reporting year wherein a particular director/board member was “interested” per the terms of BCL Section 713. New Annual Reporting Requirement for Co-Op & Condo Boards: BCL Section 727 Rachel Sigmund of Adam Leitman...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Rosemary Liuzzo Mohamed Named One of Mann Charitable Foundation’s Leading Ladies of 2018

Mann Publications

One of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s leading ladies has been recognized by The Mann Charitable Foundation’s 2nd Annual Leading Ladies event, which credits women for pushing boundaries in the apparel, real estate, hedge fund, and banking industries. Rosemary Liuzzo Mohamed heads the firm’s Mortgage Finance Group and has been ranked as a Super Lawyers Rising Star in 2014 through 2018. Her main focus is on the representation of leading banks in lending transactions, in which she uses her extensive experience...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Cures a Title Defect, Allowing Condo Owners to Close

Pulling out all the stops, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully cures a title defect to allow condominium unit owners to be “ready, willing and able” on time to close their deal. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients, the unit owners, went to contract to sell their Tribeca condo, which included a storage unit they acquired originally from the sponsor in 2010. The condo purchaser changed his mind about the purchase and began digging for ways out of the contract. The purchaser...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Decisive Dismissal Victory for Upper West Side Co-op in a Construction Contract Dispute

An Upper West Side co-op thought the nightmare with its construction contractor ended in 2011 when he left the jobsite. But 5 ½ years after leaving the jobsite, in October 2016, the contractor filed suit against the co-op trying to recover outrageous “penalties” and trumped-up fees under the contract, demanding a six-figure payday. The co-op and its president turned to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to finally end the dispute once and for all. After studying all the evidence and correspondence,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves a Mortgage from the Statute of Limitations by Using Innovative Acceleration Argument

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s mortgage servicing client commenced a second foreclosure action in 2017 after its first 2008 action failed. When the borrowers claimed that the mortgage had been accelerated by the 2008 action and could not be enforced under the six-year statute of limitations, the servicer turned to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to save the mortgage loan. The borrowers made a pre-answer motion to dismiss under the statute of limitations. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. opposed the borrowers’ motion on...

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70 Percent of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Attorneys Have Been Named to the 2018 Super Lawyers and Rising Stars Lists

Over two-thirds of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys have been named to the New York Metro area Super Lawyers and Rising Stars lists for 2018, making the New York real estate firm the only one of its size – under 30 attorneys – to achieve such an impressive accomplishment. Seventeen of the firm’s attorneys are honored to be a part of this select group of lawyers. Each year, Thomson Reuters’ Super Lawyers recognizes the top attorneys in a state or region...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Uses Non-residential Tenant Harassment Law to Save Client from Eviction by Landlord Attempting to Push Out Tenants through Unnecessary Construction and Damages 

The Real Deal

August 09, 2018 By Christian Bautista Tenant at 990 Sixth Dodges Eviction in Test Case for Commercial Tenant Harassment Law A tenant at Vanbarton Group’s 990 Sixth Avenue was able to stave off eviction in a test case for the city’s new commercial tenant harassment law. Law firm Schulman, Blitz & Williamson was granted an injunction to continue its tenancy at the 25-story residential and office tower, also known as the Vogue Building. The firm sued its landlord in June, claiming that...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Is Awarded Best Lawyer Ranking and Is the Only Real Estate Law Firm with Under 30 Attorneys to Achieve this Honor

Adam Leitman Bailey has been ranked in the 2018 Edition of The Best Lawyers in America® for outstanding work in Real Estate Law. No other attorney at a New York real estate firm with under 30 attorneys has received this honor. Best Lawyers® is known as one of the leading guides on the U.S. legal profession. Recognition by Best Lawyers® is based entirely on peer review, and tens of thousands of top attorneys submit surveys designed to gather a consensus...

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Adam Leitman Bailey is One of Two Attorneys from a Firm with under 30 Attorneys in the New York Metro Area to Be Recognized As a “Best Lawyer” in Real Estate Law

Adam Leitman Bailey is one of two attorneys from a firm of under 30 attorneys in the New York Metro Area to be included in the 25th edition of Best Lawyers in America. Recognition by Best Lawyers is designed to capture the consensus opinion of leading lawyers about the professional abilities of their colleagues within the same geographical area and legal practice area.  

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is One of Thirteen Firms in the New York Metro Area with Under 30 Attorneys to be Selected as “Best Law Firm” in Real Estate Law

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is one of thirteen firms in the New York Metro Area with under 30 attorneys to be selected as “Best Law Firm” in Real Estate Law. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has been ranked in the 2018 edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms.” The U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” rankings are based on a rigorous evaluation process that includes the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer review from leading attorneys in...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Landmark Decision Denying Developer of a License in Order to Preserve the Safety and Interests of Adjacent Condominium Owners

In a landmark decision for New York real estate developers and owners, on August 2, 2018, a New York State Supreme Court Justice issued the first decision in New York history denying a temporary, limited license sought by a developer pursuant to Real Property Actions and Proceedings and Law (“RPAPL”) Section 881. “[T]he Court is in agreement with the respondents in this matters. The Court is going to dismiss the petition for a license as it has been indicated that,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes 2018 Crain’s Best Places to Work in NYC as the Only Real Estate Law Firm on the List

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has been named as one of the Crain’s 2018 100 Best Places to Work in New York City. The Crain’s program awards various industries throughout New York’s five boroughs. The rankings aim to identify and recognize the city’s best employers, and are based on employee surveys as well as an assessment of employer policies, practices, and demographics. An outside independent research company, Best Companies Group, conducts the research and compiles the results, which are then published...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Eviction of Rent Controlled Tenant Claiming Puerto Rican Sojourn for Dental Treatment

If a tenant subject to the Rent Control Law does not maintain the subject premises as a primary residence, the landlord may sue for possession of the premises. However, the landlord must establish that the tenant does not maintain an ongoing, substantial, physical nexus with the subject premises for actual living purposes. The team at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. commenced a holdover proceeding to recover possession of the premises from the tenant. Through investigations and vigorously analyzing the tenant’s testimony,...

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Avoiding Litigation, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Attorneys Persuade Seller-Sponsor to Make Corrections and Repairs to Recently Purchased Manhattan Penthouse

In the fall of 2016, a well-known celebrity purchased a remodeled penthouse apartment in a building recently converted to condominium ownership. The offering plan and contract under which the celebrity purchased the penthouse from the sponsor specified (a) that the apartment was being sold “as is” in the condition in which it was at the time the purchase agreement was signed, subject to ordinary wear and tear, and (b) that the sponsor made “no representations or warranties other than as...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Establishes Multiple Allegations Unmeritorious, Successfully Protecting the Interests of Its Client

In the following residential mortgage foreclosure actions, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully protected the interests of the foreclosing plaintiffs by defeating allegations of, inter alia, fraud, lack of personal jurisdiction, expiry of the statute of limitations, and failure to comply with mandatory conditions precedent. All of these allegations, if not established unmeritorious by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., would have resulted in the dismissal of the foreclosure actions and, in some cases, the mortgage debt being deemed time-barred.”

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Game-Changing Settlement Creates New Case Law, Providing Monies For Complete Building Repairs and Winning Attorney Fees

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a Board of Managers of an Upper West Side condominium, came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for help with the damages caused by building defects in their newly built condominium. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. commenced a Supreme Court litigation against the sponsor developer entities and the individual principals of the entities to recover damages for the building defects, which resulted from the grossly negligent construction by the sponsor developer entities. The biggest issue was a...

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Crain’s Names Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. One of New York City’s Top Ten Best Places to Work in 2018

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has been named one of Crain’s 2018 100 Best Places to Work in New York City, the only real estate firm to have won five times since 2010. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. placed #7 in the small business category. The Crain’s program awards various industries throughout New York’s five boroughs, home to over 220,000 businesses. The rankings aim to identify and recognize the city’s best employers, and this year were based on more than 23,000 employee...

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The New Rules of Seeking a Buyout of a Rent-Regulated Tenant

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman In their Rent Regulation column, Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Treiman discuss how recent changes to the New York City Administrative Code along with a recent decision in the Appellate Term, First Department, have made landowners who seek to buy out the rights of tenants in occupancy face a minefield of requirements and restrictions. One of the most fascinating parts of being a real estate lawyer is negotiating the selling of rights to...

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Major League Baseball Player Wins Apartment Dispute

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prevailed for its client in an apartment dispute with the client’s former landlord. Our client, a major league baseball player, was traded to another team and moved out of his luxury condominium unit in Manhattan. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained to defend his interests. Litigation was an option, but Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. felt that this could be resolved before filing a complaint that could bring the player publicity of a kind he wished not...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Non-Traditional Family Succession Trial for Landlord

Representing the landlord in a multi-day trial, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. prevailed in a non-traditional family succession holdover proceeding. Finding that the occupant was more of a roommate than a family member to the deceased tenant of record, the court awarded final judgment of possession against the occupant and in favor of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client. When a tenant of record in New York City dies or permanently vacates a rent-regulated apartment, the law allows certain individuals to succeed...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Speaks as a Thought Leader at The Real Deal’s Future City

Adam Leitman Bailey joined a group of real estate experts in the Bahamas on January 28th, 2019 for The Real Deal’s Future City real estate summit. Mr. Leitman Bailey was the thought leader for a session discussing policies that are impacting developers and landlords.

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“The system is broken.” Real Estate World Clashes With NYC Politicians at Rent Regulation Panel

The Real Deal

Panelists included attorney Adam Leitman Bailey and City Councilman Mark Levine By Eddie Small March 21, 2019 In the next two weeks, state lawmakers are expected to pass the most sweeping rent regulation reform package in decades. It has the city’s real estate industry pining for the slightly older days, when Michael Bloomberg held court at City Hall and the knives weren’t out for multifamily landlords. At a Thursday morning rent regulation panel discussion between industry players and local politicians, Council member...

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On Behalf of Deutsche Bank and Title Company, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Fraudulent Signature Claim

Sacks v Deutsche Bank United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York In 2006, Deutsche Bank National Trust’s (“DBNTC”) predecessor in interest lent over $800,000 to Lois Sacks secured by a mortgage on a property in Sag Harbor, NY, a wealthy community in New York’s storied Hamptons. The mortgage and note were signed under a power of attorney by Robert Sacks, the borrower’s son. After default on the mortgage, a foreclosure proceeding was brought by another law...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Secures Victory for Title Company in a 100-Year-Old Easement Action

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was recently retained by a Title Company in an action in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Queens, where the plaintiff alleged that the title company failed to disclose the existence of a 100-year-old easement which severely depressed the value of his property. Instead of informing the title company, the plaintiff sold the property for a reduced value based upon the existence of the easement. The plaintiff then brought an action...

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CHARLES A. KRIEGER v. FIRST AMERICAN TITLE INSURANCE COMPANY

SHORT FORM ORDERNEW YORK STATE SUPREME COURT – QUEENS COUNTYPresent: Honorable Leonard Livote IAS TERM, PART 33Acting Supreme Court Justice Charles A. Krieger, Index No: 719028/18Plaintiff,— against — Motion Date: 5/14/19First American Title Seq. No: 1Insurance Company,Defendants. The following papers numbered 1 to 10 read on this motion by defendant for an Order: dismissing the complaint, pursuant to CPLR §3211 (a)(1), on the grounds that a defense is founded upon documentary evidence, to wit, the title policy, and/or (ii) dismissing...

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Mission Accomplished: Evicting Over Two Dozen Commercial Tenants by a Date Certain or Pay a Massive Amount of Money

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, a Fortune 500 company, net-leased or leased an entire building from its landlord. The tenant’s lease was expiring on April 30th. The tenant had leases with over two dozen sub-tenants and many of them, despite having leases end before April 30th, had no intention to move out when the lease ended. The tenant was in a quandary because if it did not evict all of the tenants by April 30th, it would have to pay...

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A Queens Story: Uncovering a Fraud, Fixing a Building, and Making the Client Whole for Its Losses

A well-known bakery producing some of the finest breads and pastries in New York was blocked from using most of its property to bake bread and desserts. During the first meeting with the client while going over the government’s objections to the use of the building as a bakery, logic defied the explanations for the denials. The bakery resided in a district that allowed its users to make its products without any special permits. The building complied with all standard...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Drafts Multiple Leases for BlumbergExcelsior

The Blumberg Excelsior

Famous for their landlord and tenant representation in New York City, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has been recognized numerous times in the past decade by publications and journals for the leases, agreements, and forms our attorneys have created for BlumbergExcelsior. Thomson Reuters noted that “Blumberg legal forms include more than one hundred landlord-tenant and real estate forms, many of them authored by such prominent authorities as… attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C..” New Rental Lease Eliminated Loopholes for Late Paying...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is Selected as a 2019 “Best Law Firm” in Real Estate Law

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has been ranked Tier 3 in the 2019 edition of U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms.” The firm is one of only ten firms in the New York Metro Area with under 30 attorneys to be selected as a “Best Law Firm” in Real Estate Law. The U.S. News – Best Lawyers “Best Law Firms” rankings are based on a rigorous evaluation process that includes the collection of client and lawyer evaluations, peer review...

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How Adam Leitman Bailey Became New York’s Top Real Estate Lawyer

Kivo Daily

Adam Leitman Bailey is an award-winning lawyer and entrepreneur in New York City. He is the founding partner of the eponymous law firm — Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. — which he has grown into the foremost provider of real estate-centric legal counsel in the city.   Both Adam Leitman Bailey and the firm have received accolades for their exceptional work:  The Commercial Observer named Bailey one of New York’s Most Powerful Real Estate Attorneys. Bailey is one of two attorneys from a law firm...

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Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. Wins Appeal in First Department Affirming Its Trial Victory Representing a Landlord in a Succession Claim Holdover Proceeding

In a February 2020 decision, the Appellate Term, First Department, affirmed the housing court’s February 2019 order after trial, which awarded possessory judgment to the landlord in a non-traditional family member succession proceeding concerning a rent stabilized apartment. The Appellate Term Held in a unanimous decision: A fair interpretation of the evidence supports the trial court’s finding that respondent . . . failed to meet her affirmative obligation to prove “emotional and financial commitment, and interdependence between [herself] and the...

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206 West 80th Street LLC v. Julianna Morgan

Decided on February 21, 2020SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE TERM, FIRST DEPARTMENTPRESENT: Shulman, P.J., Cooper, Edmead, JJ.570199/19 206 West 80th Street LLC, Petitioner-Landlord-Respondent, against Julianna Morgan, Respondent-Licensee-Appellant.   Respondent Julianna Morgan appeals from a final judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Anne Katz, J.), entered February 6, 2019, after a nonjury trial, which awarded possession to landlord in a holdover summary proceeding. Per Curiam. Final judgment (Anne Katz, J.), entered on February 6, 2019,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Equitable Lien and Equitable Subrogation in Foreclosure Action After Borrower Disputes Validity of Signature on Mortgage

The owner of the property secured a mortgage loan from the client’s predecessor-in-interest and made payments on the mortgage for a number of years before abruptly ceasing all payments and defaulting on the loan. Through predecessor counsel, the client filed a single count complaint seeking foreclosure on the loan.  The borrower challenged foreclosure, asserting that the signature on the mortgage “appeared not to be” his own. In light of this challenge to the validity of the mortgage, Adam Leitman Bailey,...

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Adverse Possession Win Despite Forgetting Property for 13 Years

The case felt like a John Grisham movie. The seller of an investment property sold it to two different people within a month of each other. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented the first buyer, who although was convicted for property fraud many years earlier, had innocently purchased this property and forgot about it thirteen years before the case was started. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was against two of the largest law firms in the world. An executive from another big...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Another Matter Under Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (“RPAPL”) Section 881 – Essential Construction Granted During Pandemic

A large real estate owner (“Petitioner”) in New York City retained Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. to file an action under Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law (“RPAPL”) Section 881 to obtain an order for access to the adjoining property owner’s (“Respondent”) building in order to install the temporary protections required under the New York Department of Buildings Code. In January 2020, Petitioner had attempted in good faith to negotiate a license agreement with Respondent for the installation of temporary protections...

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LEX RETAIL LLC v. 71ST STREET-LEXINGTON CORPORATION

SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORKNEW YORK COUNTYPRESENT: HON. JOHN J. KELLEY PART IAS MOTION 56EFMJustice———————————————————————————X INDEX NO. 151392/2020MOTION DATE 02/07/2020MOTION SEQ. NO. 001DECISION + ORDER ONMOTIONLEX RETAIL, LLC,Plaintiff, v – 71ST STREET-LEXINGTON CORPORATION,Defendant. The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number (Motion 001) 2, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27,28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, and 43were read on this motion to/for JUDGMENT – PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION Pursuant to a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Makes New Law and Secures Yellowstone Injunction Victory Saving Ground Lease Tenancy

In a stunning upset victory, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys recently made new law, thereby securing a Yellowstone Injunction on behalf of a tenant facing the imminent loss of its valuable ground lease tenancy after being accused by its landlord, a housing cooperative, of failing to carry the requisite property insurance, as required under the lease. The co-op landlord claimed it discovered the insurance default after it was denied coverage by the tenant’s insurance carrier. A personal injury action had...

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Knowledge of Finer Intricacies of Complicated Overcharge Laws and Formulas Result in Massive Savings for Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Landlord-Client

New York City owners who participated in the J-51 tax exemption and abatement program have faced a surge of class action cases over the last five years that nonprofit tenant advocacy groups have brought. The crux of these class actions’ claims was that owners should suffer a rollback of rent to the rates charged years ago and return supposedly overpaid rent to the tenants. Underlying this was the claim that owners did not return apartments to rent stabilization following the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtain Residential Eviction During COVID and Permission to Use Self-Help

The team at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. continued to find creative ways to assist landlord clients in the wake of the nonfunctional New York Housing Courts. In a recent case, a landlord-client learned that his tenant, in violation of the lease and New York law, had been illegally subletting his apartment through Airbnb to subtenants. One subtenant, emboldened by the fact that at the time evictions were nearly impossible to achieve in New York Housing Court, changed the locks, switched...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Awarded Number One Firm for October, November, and December

  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was awarded the Number One law firm for October, November, and December by the home-lending division of one of the top five largest banks. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. had the largest number of closings with the fewest errors per closing and the highest scores. Last year, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. finished in second place in 2020 and was determined to work harder to become number one. Unfortunately, no statistics were kept for the year except...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Secures Order Staying the Settlement of Judgment Discharging Lender’s Mortgage

The New York Legislature’s intent in passing foreclosure-related laws are generally in order to protect homeowners. However, a sophisticated investor can manipulate these laws to game the system all to the detriment of lenders. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was recently retained by a lender who faced such a situation. Lender had given a mortgage that was over a half million dollars to a borrower in August of 2008. By October of that same year, borrower stopped making payments on the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. Wins Co-op’s Right to Retain Multimillion Dollar Security Deposit Post-HSTPA

In one of the first tests of the 2019 Rent Law’s provisions restricting security deposits and prepaid rent, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. won for an extreme upscale cooperative in Manhattan, the right to keep the multimillion-dollar, multi-year prepaid maintenance it had negotiated from a foreign national with an unsavory international reputation. Arguing that the prepaid maintenance was not subject to the 2019 law, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. preserved the cooperative’s ability to secure itself against its shareholder’s possible defaults.  This...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Appellate Victory: Successor Sponsors No Longer Responsible for Repairing Building

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully defended purchasers of units in a condominium following the original sponsor’s  bankruptcy against claims of individual units’ owners for breach of contract. The original sponsor of a condominium conversion declared bankruptcy after it was sued by individual unit owners for design and construction defects. In the bankruptcy proceeding, the firm’s client purchased almost 40 unsold units and unsold parking spaces  “free and clear” of the defective pre-bankruptcy design and construction defects of the original sponsor....

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On Appeal, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Gets Lower Court Order Vacated in The Interest of Justice

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a lender to revive a foreclosure action that was dismissed after a traverse hearing based upon the failure to serve the defendant. Prior to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. being retained in the action, prior counsel filed a motion for an Order of Reference which Defendant opposed by cross-motion arguing that he was not served. In response, the Court scheduled a traverse hearing.    Prior to the traverse hearing taking place, Plaintiff filed a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats a Tenant’s Order to Show Cause Seeking a Preliminary Injunction and Upholds a Commercial Landlord’s Rights to Self Help

It is a longstanding and well-settled principle of law in New York that, when the right to re-enter is expressly reserved in a commercial lease, the landlord may re-enter the leased premises upon a tenant’s default in the payment of rent, a breach of other lease terms, or upon the termination of the lease. This principle was recently tested in a Nassau County Supreme Court action preliminary injunction application, where a commercial tenant (in severe breach of multiple covenants of...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Protects a Commercial Landlord From a Tenant’s Attempt to Expand a Dangerous HVAC and Gas Line Project

Representing a commercial landlord in a Kings County, Supreme Court action, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. defeated a tenant’s application for a preliminary injunction, brought by order to show cause, in which the tenant sought broad permission to expand its dangerous and unlawful HVAC and gas line operations. In companion commercial eviction proceedings, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. obtained judgments of possession against the Brooklyn supermarket tenant based on the tenant’s breaches of a commercial lease. The tenant appealed and obtained a...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Saves and Secures Life-Saving Facility While Stopping Work on Development Project: When the Building That Holds the 911 Center is in Danger of Collapsing, Who You Gonna Call? Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.

In New York City, some buildings are sacrosanct. They may not be good-looking or special from the outside but what they do on the inside helps save lives. When Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. attorneys received the emergency call and ran to this building, upon arriving they were shuffled into an office and briefed on the importance of their mission. The attorneys had to secure and eventually save the building, which cannot be named due to the secrecy of the assignment,...

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Buyouts, Evictions, Negotiations, and Detective Work Lead to the Ground Work to Build a Large Condominium

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Landlord-Tenant Practice Facilitates the Development of New Construction on The Upper East Side. Here is an Example:   Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. spent almost a year and a half buying-out tenants and evicting tenants who had violated their lease agreement for a large rent-regulated building site in Brooklyn. These tenants’ violations included illegally subletting, not using their premises as their primary residences, or chronically paying their rent late. The property owner’s goal was to demolish the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails at Making New Law as Appellate Division Finds Second Sponsor Not Liable For Condominium Building Defects

The Real Deal

Court lets Fortis off hook for Williamsburg condo defects Developer wins argument that shoddy workmanship is board’s problem now Since purchasing 37 condo units from bankruptcy nearly a decade ago, a Brooklyn developer has denied that it also acquired responsibility for fixing defects in the building. Now, a court has let the developer off the hook. A panel of Appellate Division judges found that Fortis Property Group isn’t liable for damages or defects that existed at Bayard Views Condominium in Williamsburg before the previous...

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Unprecedented Negotiation of License Agreement with Large Developer Improves Structural Stability and Increases Value and Longevity of Adjacent Building

A prominent real estate holding company needed to negotiate an extraordinarily complicated license agreement for protections relating to a prominent university’s massive construction project adjacent to the building.  The university’s project included demolition work, support of excavation work, foundation work, and the construction of a new building. In particular, the real estate holding company was extremely concerned that the university’s project could have dire consequences on its building due to the fragility and age of the building. The real estate...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Is Named One of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in the Nation

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is pleased to be ranked as one of the nation’s Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in 2019 by Best and Brightest. Out of thousands of nominations and over 500 selected winners, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was one of only three law firms in the nation to be recognized and the only real estate law firm to be recognized. We are proud to be acknowledged for our dedication and commitment toward creating a happy, healthy,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Selected as a Global Leader in Real Estate 2020 by Who’sWhoLegal

Who’s Who Legal has identified the foremost legal practitioners and consulting experts in business law based upon comprehensive and independent research. This year Adam Leitman Bailey was selected as Who’s Who Legal Global Leaders in Real Estate 2020. Who’s Who Legal stated “Adam Leitman Bailey is an “intelligent and diligent” lawyer remark sources, who note he is “extremely knowledgeable of the law” and commend his “excellent strategic thinking”. Read Adam Leitman Bailey’s full Who’s Who Legal profile here: https://whoswholegal.com/adam-leitman-bailey

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Revives a Time-Barred Mortgage Loan on Appeal

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by the note owner to salvage a 2007 foreclosure action that was dismissed pursuant to CPLR § 3216 for the Plaintiff’s prior counsel’s alleged failure to prosecute.  By virtue of the CPLR § 3216 dismissal, foreclosure of the loan was then time-barred by the statute of limitations, and the Plaintiff was unable to use the six month grace period afforded by CPLR § 205 needed to timely commence a new action.  Accordingly, Adam Leitman...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Post Foreclosure Writ of Assistance; Defeats Prior Owner’s Motion to Vacate Default

Representing the buyer of a commercial property after a foreclosure sale in Suffolk County, New York, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. won a motion for a writ of assistance under New York Real Property Law § 221 to evict the prior owner church and to put the firm’s client into possession of the property. Simultaneously, partnering with the foreclosing bank’s counsel, the firm opposed and defeated the prior owner’s motion to vacate its default in the underlying foreclosure action. In September...

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Landlord-Tenant—Airbnb Occupant Overstayed Reservation—Went from Being Illegal Subtenant to Trespasser After He Surrendered the Apartment—Court Enjoined Occupant from Using the Premises

New York Law Journal

This decision involved a rent stabilized apartment which had a legal rent of $2,765 per month. The tenant violated the lease by renting the apartment through Airbnb to the defendant occupant (occupant). The occupant apparently “overstayed his booking.” The landlord moved to exclude the occupant from the apartment and to set past use and occupancy. Although no opposition had been submitted on the motion, the court conducted a conference call. The occupant “represented that he wanted to depart the premises...

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Appellate Division Sustains Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Foreclosure Sale Objections Involving Accounting and Breach of Fiduciary Duty

   When a bank acts as a trustee for an estate, it is held to a higher standard of care. In a longstanding matter before the Surrogate’s Court,  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was called in, in the middle of trial, to represent brothers whose interests in inherited  real property had been adversely affected by the bank’s acts and failure to act. The Surrogate sustained the objections relating to the foreclosure sale.  Among other things, the bank claimed that releases that...

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Landlord-Tenant—Airbnb Occupant Overstayed Reservation—Went from Being Illegal Subtenant to Trespasser After He Surrendered the Apartment—Court Enjoined Occupant from Using the Premises

New York Law Journal

This decision involved a rent stabilized apartment which had a legal rent of $2,765 per month. The tenant violated the lease by renting the apartment through Airbnb to the defendant occupant (occupant). The occupant apparently “overstayed his booking.” The landlord moved to exclude the occupant from the apartment and to set past use and occupancy. Although no opposition had been submitted on the motion, the court conducted a conference call. The occupant “represented that he wanted to depart the premises...

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Chambers & Partners Ranks Adam Leitman Bailey as One of New York’s Top Real Estate Litigators in 2021

Chambers & Partners Ranks Adam Leitman Bailey as One of New York’s Top Real Estate Litigators in 2021 Chambers remarked that Adam Leitman Bailey “is a noted real estate litigator with substantial expertise handling high-stakes disputes.” Chambers also remarked that “he is a creative and innovative lawyer who thinks outside the box.” Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is the only firm listed that also practices Cooperative & Condominium Law and Title Insurance Law. About Chambers & Partners: One of the most renowned...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Honored in Millennium, a Marquis Who’s Who Magazine

  Marquis Who’s Who Millennium Magazine has nominated Adam Leitman Bailey to be featured in their Seventh Edition, in the section “Law and Law Enforcement.” Millennium magazine features leaders from around the globe; it is a more recent addition to their various biographical data features. For over a century (since 1899), Marquis Who’s Who has proudly supported the library and research communities with the most trusted biographical information of its kind. Nearly every public and academic library in the United...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Shareholder-Clients Prevail on Appeal as Court Finds Cooperative Negligent and Determines Cooperative Must Maintain Roof in Good Repair Among other Damages Awarded to Clients

The law generally provides that when a party asserts a claim for breach of contract and for negligence based upon the same operative events, the negligence claim will be dismissed as being duplicative of the breach of contract cause of action. This is the issue Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. faced when taking over a case brought by shareholders of two penthouse units in a small cooperative building. Due to extensive leaking from numerous areas of the roof, the units suffered...

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240W35, LLC v 243 West 34th Street LLC: Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails Obtaining Court Order/License to Do Remediation and Repairs on Client’s Property and Ability to Access Adversary’s Property to Finish Work

Against one of the largest land owners in the world, our client, a real estate company needed access on our adversary’s property to do repairs to our client’s buildings.  Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law section 881 permits an owner of real property to petition the court for a license to enter an adjoining owner’s property when the adjoining owner refuses to enter into a license agreement to grant access. The court should fashion a remedy as justice requires. Adam...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Halts Airbnb Abuses by Unit Owner

The Board of a Condominium engaged Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. after one of its units owners repeatedly listed his apartment on Airbnb, and other transient use websites, for short-term rentals, in violation of New York law and the governing documents of the building. Specifically, § 27-2004.a.8(a) of the Housing Maintenance Code, expressly prohibits transient, short-term rentals of Class A multiple dwellings. At the time that the Board engaged Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., the New York Department of Buildings had already...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Shareholder-Clients Prevail on Appeal as Court Finds Cooperative Negligent and Determines Cooperative Must Maintain Roof in Good Repair Among other Damages Awarded to Clients

The law generally provides that when a party asserts a claim for breach of contract and for negligence based upon the same operative events, the negligence claim will be dismissed as being duplicative of the breach of contract cause of action. This is the issue Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. faced when taking over a case brought by shareholders of two penthouse units in a small cooperative building. Due to extensive leaking from numerous areas of the roof, the units suffered...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Claim Against Title Company

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a title company in connection with a claim that the search performed by the title company was negligent.  The title company was retained by the purchaser of the property in connection with the sale of a property that was inherited after the death of seller’s father.  Seller represented that he was the sole heir of the decedent and executed an heirship affidavit indicating he was the sole heir. The property was transferred to...

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240W35, LLC v 243 West 34th Street LLC: Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Prevails Obtaining Court Order/License to Do Remediation and Repairs on Client’s Property and Ability to Access Adversary’s Property to Finish Work

Against one of the largest land owners in the world, our client, a real estate company needed access on our adversary’s property to do repairs to our client’s buildings.  Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law section 881 permits an owner of real property to petition the court for a license to enter an adjoining owner’s property when the adjoining owner refuses to enter into a license agreement to grant access. The court should fashion a remedy as justice requires. Adam...

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Another Hard Fought Victory by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for a Townhouse Developer under RPAPL § 881: By Digging In and Investigating and Uncovering an Insurmountable Amount of Evidence, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Gave the Court Only One Path To Follow

In RLM TH LLC v. 162 East 70th Street Trust LLC, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. succeeded in a Real Property Actions and Proceedings Law  (“RPAPL”) § 881 proceeding commenced against a neighboring homeowner, after Respondent refused to negotiate in good faith with Petitioner concerning, inter alia, construction on a shared party wall between Petitioner’s and Respondent’s townhouses on the Upper East Side.   Petitioner purchased the townhouse with the purposes of performing a gut renovation and adding a vertical addition to...

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Chambers Associate Ranks Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. in 5 Categories Nationwide in the 2021 Associate Satisfaction Survey

In the 2021 USA Guide, Chambers Associate has awarded Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Associate rankings in 5 nationwide categories.  These rankings include one category as a Top 10 Firm and 4 other categories as a Top 25 Firm in the United States of America. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was ranked as a Top 10 Firm for: Quality of Life Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. also ranked as a Top 25 Firm for: Associate Retention Associate Satisfaction Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Career...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Ranked in Expertise’s 2021 Top 38 Real Estate Law Firms in New York

Every year, Expertise.com decides on the most prominent local experts in a variety of fields with the goal of connecting the public with the best. This year, after researching over 4000 real estate law firms, Expertise.com ranked Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. as one of the top 38 real estate law firms in New York. They scored real estate lawyers on more than 25 variables across five categories, and analyzed the results to create a hand-picked list of the best real...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Featured in Chambers Associate’s 2021 Guide

New York and real estate go together like Big Apple pie and a hefty scoop of ice cream – and no one knows that better than the folks at Adam Leitman Bailey. A relative youngster in the New York market, Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. turned 21 in January 2021. If it were a person, it would now be able to legally drink or adopt a child or, well, gamble if it were that way inclined. But gambling is not something that’s on...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Named to ‘Best Lawyers in America’ List 2021

Adam Leitman Bailey has reached a seven-year milestone after being named to Best Lawyers in America list. This year’s selection process consisted of more than 10 million peer evaluations; only 5% of practicing attorneys in the United States were honored.   Best Lawyers met the need for efficient legal recommendations in a time long before accessibility to the internet and search engines. What began as a small directory of names has grown into an internationally recognized brand. Known for a carefully curated list...

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7 Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Attorneys Recognized by Best Lawyers in 2022 Editions

  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has once again proven its excellence with its performance in the 2022 Editions of The Best Lawyers and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch.   The team at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. would like to congratulate Adam Leitman Bailey on his naming to the The Best Lawyers in America list; this recognition marks a seven-year milestone for Mr. Bailey.   Further, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. would like to congratulate the following attorneys on being named to the 2022 Best Lawyers: Ones to...

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Han Dynasty Bronx, LLC et al. v. Albert Alkerson

    Decision and Order_9.1.21_(901696_19 and 900078_20)

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains a Preliminary Injunction and an Order of Contempt Against Holdover Licensees Illegally Using a New York City Apartment as a Single Room Occupancy Dwelling and for Short-Term Occupancy

In a New York County Supreme Court ejectment action, Adam Leitman Bailey P.C., prevailed on a motion for a temporary restraining order, then obtained an order of contempt against the non-complying occupants based on their illegal and dangerous use of a Class A apartment as a de facto single room occupancy dwelling and short-term rental enterprise.  The rent stabilized tenant of record of the apartment recently died, leaving behind multiple unauthorized occupants. Seeking to recover possession of the apartment, Adam...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Banking Department Ensures Client Success Despite Hurricane Complications

On September 1, 2021, Hurricane Ida made landfall in New York, heavily impacting the Tri-State area with devastating winds and rain. With up to 3.1 inches of rain in Central Park within just one hour, the National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency in New York City for the first time. Mayor Bill de Blasio declared a state of the emergency stating that New York City was “enduring a historic weather event” and urged New Yorkers to stay indoors....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Declaratory Judgment, Permanent Injunction, and Judgment of Possession Against Nuisance Apartment Occupant Despite Ban on Evictions

Representing a residential landlord in a Supreme Court ejectment action, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was tasked with securing possession of an apartment; second, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was charged with protecting the safety and quiet enjoyment of the apartments of neighboring residents against an unauthorized nuisance occupant left over when the tenant of record vacated the apartment, but failed to remove the occupant.  The tenant of record of the free market apartment installed an occupant who (according to neighbors and building staff) terrorized the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Secures Historic Westchester County Real Estate Settlement Following Motion to Enforce

Background:  Earlier this year, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. secured an absolute victory with an unprecedented multi- million-dollar settlement of multiple lawsuits. These lawsuits were brought by owners of a neighboring property to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client in which they alleged an adverse possession claim against the client’s property, the last remaining vacant plot in a Westchester County multi-parcel subdivision.  Despite submitting multiple notices to the neighbors, without objection, at key stages of development, the neighbors claimed that they owned a portion of Adam...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Trial; Vacating Mechanics Lien Foreclosure Sale Denied

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained to represent the purchaser in a mechanic’s lien foreclosure of a commercial building in upper Manhattan which had proceeded to auction and sale. The client was the high bidder. After Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client paid just over a million dollars and was deeded the property, the prior owner moved to vacate the sale on the grounds that it did not receive proper notice of the auction and that the sale price was unconscionable. ...

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Overcoming Extremely Difficult Odds, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Agency Governing Rent Deregulation, DHCR, Protecting Default Order of High-Income High-Rent Deregulation, Deregulating Apartment

This case highlights the mantra of never-ever giving up, believing in the case, and continuing to fight for our client’s rights to deregulate a rent stabilized apartment despite five years of delays and obstacles in multiple courts and agency proceedings. Finally, at the State Supreme Court, justice prevailed for our landlord-client who never stopped believing in Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. After a five-year battle in multiple courts and at the Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR), Adam Leitman Bailey,...

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Best Lawyers® Announces 2021 Business Edition: The Litigation Issue

Best Lawyers® Announces 2021 Business Edition: The Litigation Issue AUGUSTA, Ga., September 3, 2021 — Best Lawyers®, the oldest and most respected guide to the legal profession, is pleased to announce the release of the 2021 Best Lawyers Business Edition: Litigation Issue. Using information excerpted from the recently released 2022 editions of The Best Lawyers in America® and Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch in America, this publication features more than 20,000 lawyers recognized for their top legal talent in litigation-related...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Persuades Sponsor of Condominium to Fix Building Issues

In 2018, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a group of unit owners at a prominent new construction condominium in lower Manhattan. There were numerous defects in the construction of their 150-unit building. The sponsor still controlled the board of managers and had only been performing band-aid repairs. The issues ranged from missing firestopping, façade defects, and ventilation issues to poor quality window and hardwood floor installations.  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. jumped into action to assist the group of...

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In Erie County Action, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Holds Foreclosure Auction and Closes to Third-Party High Bidder

With the continuing COVID-19 legislation staying foreclosures during the pandemic, lenders are stalled in prosecuting its actions and are having even more difficulty completing an auction.   In this Erie County post-judgment of foreclosure and sale action, immediately upon the issuance of the COVID-19 conference requirements, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. requested that the required conference be set and then diligently followed up with the Court to get it scheduled and held.   Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. participated in the conference and achieved Court approval to move forward with...

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Shady Business Dealings, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Secures Favorable Settlement For Its Client

In a case where an investor was swindled by his business partner, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was able to quickly secure a settlement saving its client’s investment. The investor purchased a property with the intent of developing and constructing a residential property to sell.  In order to develop this new residential property, the investor entered in a joint development agreement with a builder.   The builder ended up taking out multiple mortgages on the property all to the detriment of...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Updates the Most Comprehensive New York State Free Market Lease Form Ever Written

Blumberg announced the publication of the most comprehensive New York State free market lease form ever written. The revised Blumberg form is entitled. No. 57, Apartment Lease for an Unregulated Apartment, with Guarantee, 8-21. Attorneys Adam Leitman Bailey and Dov Tremain of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., have updated the previous version to: Make it easier to navigate with all fill-in items on the first and last pages Deal with rent concessions Vastly strengthen the language protecting landlords against short term...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Advocates on Behalf of Client, Ensuring Protective Measures For Historic Building and Tenants

The board of a condominium on the Upper East Side approached Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. searching for assistance in negotiating a license agreement with a large-scale real estate developer; they hoped to install protective measures concerning a massive adjacent demolition and construction project for a new commercial building that services the entertainment and music industry. In addition to ensuring the protection of the historic building and its unit owners, the board was concerned about the strong potential for disruptive noise...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Injunction Against Serial Illegal Short-Term Rental Operators

Representing a New York landlord, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. obtained an injunction in a Supreme Court ejectment action against a group of illegal short-term rental operators who commandeered multiple apartments in our client’s building. Several months ago, a group of straw tenants, led by their ringleader, submitted a series of fraudulent apartment applications, and obtained leases for four apartments in the building. The plot quickly unraveled when none of the named tenants moved in. Instead, they furnished the apartments and...

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NY foreclosure ban does not apply to shell companies, judge rules

The Real Deal

As the pandemic drags on, New York’s foreclosure moratorium is starting to crack. On Nov. 12, an Orange County judge ruled that Wilmington Savings Fund could foreclose on and sell the home at 6 Turtle Knoll in Monroe. The ruling came as a surprise, given that its owner had filed a hardship declaration, which is supposed to keep people in their homes even if they fail to make their mortgage payments. But in this case, the borrower wasn’t a person:...

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Adam Leitman Bailey Named Top 100 Litigator

ADAM LEITMAN BAILEY NAMED AS AMERICA’S TOP 100 BET-THE-COMPANY LITIGATORS®   Announcing the selection of Adam Leitman Bailey among America’s Top 100 Bet-the-Company Litigators® for 2021.  Selection to America’s Top 100 Bet-the-Company Litigators® is by invitation only and is reserved to identify the nation’s most exceptional trial attorneys in High Stakes Business Litigation matters.   To be considered for selection, an attorney must have litigated (for either plaintiff or defendant) a matter with the fate of a business worth at least $2,000,000 at...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Is One of the Top Law Firms on the Globe

  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is thrilled to share its achievement of top rankings for The Lawyers Global 2021 awards. The firm’s results-driven mindset, augmented by aggressive litigation and client-centric practices, has led to great success in the New York State real estate law environment. The Lawyers Global awards tout the firm’s latest examples of success.   Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has achieved the following recognitions:   Outstanding Law Firm: Global – Ranked #39  Outstanding Law Firm: Continent – Ranked #6  Outstanding Law Firm; Sub-Region: North America – Ranked #6 ...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Achieves 2022 “Best Law Firms” Recognition

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Ranked in 2022 “Best Law Firms” Manhattan, NY, United States, November 4, 2022 — U.S. News & World Report and Best Lawyers®  announce the “Best Law Firms” rankings. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has been ranked in the 2022 U.S. News – Best Lawyers® “Best Law Firms” list nationally in 1 practice areas and regionally in 1 practice areas. Firms included in the 2022 “Best Law Firms” list are recognized for professional excellence with persistently impressive ratings from...

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Foreclosures—Since Subject Property Involved Investment Property Owned by an LLC, CEEFPA Is Inapplicable—Hardship Declaration Cannot Stop Foreclosure

New York Law Journal

This decision involved an action to foreclose a mortgage. The plaintiff had previously moved for summary judgment of foreclosure. That motion was granted upon the defendants’ default. The defendants thereafter moved to vacate their default. That motion was denied as “wholly without merit.” The plaintiff then moved for a judgment of foreclosure and sale. A defendant, as “purported mortgagor of the subject premises” (premises) filed a “hardship declaration” pursuant to the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction & Foreclosure Prevention Act, as amended...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Secures Bulk Purchase of 22 Units in New Luxury Condominium Building for Client, Deeming Client “Successor Sponsor”

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented a real estate developer/investor in its bulk purchase of 22 units in a new luxury condo in Midtown Manhattan with a total offering of over $500 million. Our client’s bulk purchase of 22 units was in excess of $80 million. The process presented our attorneys with an intricate series of obstacles which they masterfully navigated and secured an ideal outcome for our client.   Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. guided our client through tense negotiations of the complex purchase and sale agreement, while...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Vacates Covid-19 Hardship Declaration Filing Stay in a Case of First Impression

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a lender to commence foreclosure proceedings against a borrower LLC on a residential property.  Notably, the LLC’s member specifically represented at origination that the mortgaged premises would be an investment property and executed an occupancy affidavit to that effect. Lender was granted summary judgment and an Order of Reference in the action, the Referee reported the Amount Due, and the Lender then moved for a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale.  Before the motion...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Resolves an Intricate Easement Dispute, Enabling Client to Pursue Construction Project

In the midst of a complicated easement dispute, a real estate developer and holding company enlisted the expertise of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., who ultimately rescued their development project by clearing out all underlying litigation conflicts.  A real estate developer had recently purchased a property on which they planned to develop affordable housing, a project that would undoubtedly stimulate the surrounding community. The developer was seeking to sell part of the land they purchased, but in order to do so,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Restraining Order to Lock Out Violent Illegal Short-Term Rental Operators with New York Police Department Assistance

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. secured an emergency temporary restraining order for its landlord client before Christmas, obtaining permission from a Supreme Court Judge to change the locks and seal the doors to three apartments with New York Police Department (NYPD) assistance to keep out violent illegal short-term rental operators. First,  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. secured a temporary restraining order enjoining a criminal enterprise operating a multiple-apartment illegal short-term rental scheme in our client’s Manhattan building. This order prohibited the tenants from advertising...

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Foreclosures—Since Subject Property Involved Investment Property Owned by an LLC, CEEFPA Is Inapplicable—Hardship Declaration Cannot Stop Foreclosure

New York Law Journal

This decision involved an action to foreclose a mortgage. The plaintiff had previously moved for summary judgment of foreclosure. That motion was granted upon the defendants’ default. The defendants thereafter moved to vacate their default. That motion was denied as “wholly without merit.” The plaintiff then moved for a judgment of foreclosure and sale. A defendant, as “purported mortgagor of the subject premises” (premises) filed a “hardship declaration” pursuant to the COVID-19 Emergency Eviction & Foreclosure Prevention Act, as amended...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Ranked as New York’s Best and Brightest Company to Work For; Ranked Among Only 79 Nationwide

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is thrilled to share that we have been selected as one of New York’s Best and Brightest Company’s to Work For!   The winning companies of the 2021 new regional program were assessed by an independent research firm, which reviewed several key measures relative to other nationally recognized winners. The Best and Brightest Companies to Work For® winners are not ranked. This year, the Best and Brightest program honored only 79 organizations from Charlotte, Denver, Miami, Nashville, New York, Portland, and...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Secures Bulk Purchase of 22 Units in New Luxury Condominium Building for Client, Deeming Client “Successor Sponsor”

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented a real estate developer/investor in its bulk purchase of 22 units in a new luxury condo in Midtown Manhattan with a total offering of over $500 million. Our client’s bulk purchase of 22 units was in excess of $80 million. The process presented our attorneys with an intricate series of obstacles which they masterfully navigated and secured an ideal outcome for our client.   Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. guided our client through tense negotiations of the complex purchase and sale agreement, while...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Vacates Covid-19 Hardship Declaration Filing Stay in a Case of First Impression

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a lender to commence foreclosure proceedings against a borrower LLC on a residential property.  Notably, the LLC’s member specifically represented at origination that the mortgaged premises would be an investment property and executed an occupancy affidavit to that effect. Lender was granted summary judgment and an Order of Reference in the action, the Referee reported the Amount Due, and the Lender then moved for a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale.  Before the motion...

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Overcoming Extremely Difficult Odds, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Agency Governing Rent Deregulation, DHCR, Protecting Default Order of High-Income High-Rent Deregulation, Deregulating Apartment

This case highlights the mantra of never-ever giving up, believing in the case, and continuing to fight for our client’s rights to deregulate a rent stabilized apartment despite five years of delays and obstacles in multiple courts and agency proceedings. Finally, at the State Supreme Court, justice prevailed for our landlord-client who never stopped believing in Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. After a five-year battle in multiple courts and at the Division of Housing & Community Renewal (DHCR), Adam Leitman Bailey,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Negotiates Almost Complete Relief for a Landlord Seeking Arrears From Rent-Stabilized Tenant

COVID-19 has disrupted the ordinary course of dealings in both the residential leasing and sales sectors, with renters and buyers using COVID-related excuses and delays in attempt to avoid paying rent and close on sales in a fluctuating market. However, using a distinct combination of deep institutional knowledge about the Real Estate market, aggressive litigation tactics, and a familiarity with the Courts and practices across New York, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has consistently helped its clients avoid such losses and...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Resolves an Intricate Easement Dispute, Enabling Client to Pursue Construction Project

In the midst of a complicated easement dispute, a real estate developer and holding company enlisted the expertise of Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., who ultimately rescued their development project by clearing out all underlying litigation conflicts.  A real estate developer had recently purchased a property on which they planned to develop affordable housing, a project that would undoubtedly stimulate the surrounding community. The developer was seeking to sell part of the land they purchased, but in order to do so,...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Helps Landlords and Sellers Navigate the Pandemic Against Defaulting Renters and Purchasers

COVID-19 has disrupted the ordinary course of dealing in both the residential leasing and sales sectors, with renters and buyers using COVID-related excuses and delays in attempts to avoid paying rent and close on sales in a fluctuating market. However, using a distinct combination of deep institutional knowledge about the Real Estate market, aggressive litigation tactics, and a familiarity with the Courts and practices throughout New York, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. has consistently helped its clients avoid such losses, and...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Helps Seller Retain Purchaser’s Deposit in Contentious Litigation

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented owners of a Manhattan cooperative apartment who contracted in June 2021 to sell the apartment to sophisticated buyers, securing a standard 10% deposit on signing. The purchase contract contained standard terms, including an unconditional approval from the sellers’ co-op board. The apartment in question had previously been outfitted with central A/C and a laundry washer/dryer unit, which buyers were assuming. As required under the contract, buyers quickly obtained board approval permitting them to purchase the apartment in...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Obtains Restraining Order to Lock Out Violent Illegal Short-Term Rental Operators with New York Police Department Assistance

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. secured an emergency temporary restraining order for its landlord client before Christmas, obtaining permission from a Supreme Court Judge to change the locks and seal the doors to three apartments with New York Police Department (NYPD) assistance to keep out violent illegal short-term rental operators. First,  Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. secured a temporary restraining order enjoining a criminal enterprise operating a multiple-apartment illegal short-term rental scheme in our client’s Manhattan building. This order prohibited the tenants from advertising...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Overcoming Obstacles: Power of Attorney

At Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., we deal with closings and transactions of every nature. Closing by Power of Attorney has always been a common practice in real estate transactions, especially now during the pandemic. Parties who are unable to attend the closing personally could delegate such power to an agent to execute documents on their behalf at the closing table.  While it may be a seemingly straightforward delegation, New York has a unique set of guidelines and requirements. In addition...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Hired to Litigate in Sale of Property Conflict and Resolves Dispute Against Neighbor Without Litigation and Much Higher Sales Price

Two siblings hired Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. for a contract negotiation regarding the sale of their inherited apartment. After successfully and strategically maneuvering the clients through a series of intricate hurdles, the attorneys at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. reached a settlement with the client’s adversary at a much higher price than they had been previously offered.   Shortly after inheriting the apartment, the neighbor of their mother’s apartment approached the siblings and expressed that he was interested in purchasing it. They...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s Careful Due Diligence Catches Misleading Listing Revealing that Private Terrace is Actually Shared Space

Due diligence review is usually the final hurdle for Purchasers to gain comfortability with a deal. The due diligence period (normally 5 business days) reveals the important financial, physical and intangible aspects of living in a unit and building. At Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., our due diligence review, among other items, involves a deep dissection of the building’s financials, Board meeting minutes, future budgets, offering plans, house rules and our proven due diligence questionnaire. Questionnaire Adam Leitman Bailey P.C.’s proven...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Settles Case Winning Fifteen Times Coverage Limit

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. represented a condo board suing a contractor in Supreme Court for substandard work on the building exterior. Because the contractor had hired uninsured subcontractors, the only insurance coverage amount was $50,000 of which $40,000 had been paid out to individual unit owners for damage to their homes, leaving $10,000 in coverage. Because of factors including the insurer’s uncertainty of success in their disclaimer of further coverage, the interest which had accrued, the expense of proceeding, the...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Remains Vigilant and Prepared as Omicron Sweeps Through State

As the Omicron variant sweeps its way through New York City, the banking department at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. is working safely and diligently to ensure all files are closed on time and in accordance with all CDC guidelines. Our staff continues to maintain the required social distancing, disinfecting regularly, always wearing masks during the closing, and most importantly, our staff is 100% vaccinated.   As this variant progresses, we at Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. will continue to make the appropriate...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Demonstrates Lower Court Improvidently Exercised Discretion, Secures A Discovery Victory for Its Client

In an action where shareholders of two cooperative apartments are suing the cooperative corporation and seeking damages for breach of contract and negligence and other relief due to pervasive leaking into their units, which caused their children to suffer from toxic mold and otherwise caused extensive property damage to their units, the plaintiffs’ former counsel had conducted a deposition of a non-party witness who was the largest shareholder in the cooperative and who had served on the board for over...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Halts Airbnb Abuses by Unit Owner

The Board of a Condominium engaged Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. after one of its units owners repeatedly listed his apartment on Airbnb, and other transient use websites, for short-term rentals, in violation of New York law and the governing documents of the building. Specifically, § 27-2004.a.8(a) of the Housing Maintenance Code, expressly prohibits transient, short-term rentals of Class A multiple dwellings. At the time that the Board engaged Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., the New York Department of Buildings had already...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Helping Buyers Navigate Purchasing Property on a 1840’s Slave Burial Ground

Bowery Residents Committee (BRC) (2021) BRC, a highly respected not-for-profit whose mission is to provide shelter and social services to New York’s homeless, entered into a purchase and sale agreement for a property in northern Manhattan.  The contract deposit was in excess of $1 million.  As is typical on these matters, BRC arranged with City agencies to finance, build, and operate a homeless shelter and social services center on the site.  As the final touches were put on the documents...

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East Side Story: The Made-For-Hollywood Tale of a 16-Year Legal Tussle to Help a Dedicated Band of Manhattan “Homesteaders” Take Ownership of the Building They Had Moved Into And Begun to Rehab

Best Lawyers

By Best Lawyers Last year, Ramin Bahrani, one of my clients, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. For his previous movie, 99 Homes (2015), I had helped script the court scenes and advised closely on the script overall. I reminded Ramin that no real estate attorney had ever been thanked onstage by an Oscar winner. In my humble opinion, that streak was primed to end—we “dirt lawyers” have exciting, compelling stories to tell. That goes double...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Summary Judgment in Commercial Breach of Lease and Guaranty Action; Obtains $1.6M Judgment for Landlord

Representing a commercial landlord, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. successfully sued the tenant and guarantors for unpaid rent in Manhattan Supreme Court, winning a $1.6M monetary judgment, which included rent arrears accumulated before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The tenant rented a prime location to operate a food market at a base rent of about $70,000.00 per month, plus other charges. The tenant began falling behind on rent payments before COVID-19, then completely stopped paying rent. The tenant abandoned the premises...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Dismissal Motion In Problematic Foreclosure Action

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a Lender to take over a disastrous 7-year-old foreclosure action that was already plagued with an order tolling interest to the detriment of the Lender for prior delays in the action.  Defendants moved to dismiss the action pursuant to CPLR § 3215(c) for the Lender failing to take a default within a year, and also sought additional tolling of interest.  Defendants, a married couple, strategically appeared in the action to facilitate the CPLR...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Wins Appeal and Obtains Critical Information For Client In Rent Overcharge Dispute

Under New York law, if a landlord obtains J-51 tax benefits from New York City, the  landlord  must treat its tenants as rent stabilized. In this case, the owner failed to do so and for years treated our client as deregulated and charged rents exceeding that allowable under rent stabilization.  Our client commenced a rent overcharge case in the Supreme Court. There, the determination of whether rent overcharges would be computed on the basis of the rent charged four years...

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Title Policy Exceptions Enforced to Defeat Disgruntled Property Owner

The Plaintiff  purchased a property and obtained a title policy which contained certain exceptions to coverage regarding a driveway, a portion of which encroached onto  a private street. The plaintiff used that driveway and also had access to a public street which abutted his property. Subsequently, the adjacent property, which included the private road, was sold and that owner and the plaintiff had several disputes regarding the use of the driveway  which the owner had used without incident prior to...

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How the Manhattan D.A.’s Investigation Into Donald Trump Unraveled

The New York Times

“Soon, some of the career prosecutors who had worked on the inquiry for more than two years expressed concern. They believed that Mr. Vance, who had decided not to seek re-election, was pushing too hard for an indictment before leaving office, and that the evidence gathered so far did not justify the speed at which the inquiry was moving. The debate was born of painful experience from past investigations, including one involving the Trump family. In 2012, in the first of his three...

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De-Acceleration of Loan Found Valid to Defeat Statute of Limitation Defense Notwithstanding Word Processing Error In Stipulation of Discontinuance

In a mortgage foreclosure action where Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. participated in the appeal to the Appellate Division, Second Department the lower court refused to grant the mortgagee summary judgment on its foreclosure complaint and for an order of reference finding that there was an issue of fact as to whether the claim was time barred. A foreclosure action had been brought against the mortgagor in May 2011 but was then discontinued by stipulation in December 2016. However, the stipulation...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats the Department of Homeless Services, Project Renewal and Prevents a Homeless Shelter From Moving In

All over New York City, the Department of Homeless Services has been placing homeless shelters, particularly in the City’s most affluent neighborhoods.  Front page articles went on for months discussing these homeless shelters, the prostitution and drug use and trafficking that come along with such shelters, as well as the incompetency of the services provided to the men and woman that reside in the buildings.  In each part of the City, legal battles ensued.  No opposition group in any part of...

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In an Unprecedented Decision, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats an Easement Claim by Summary Judgment

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a long-established Bronx construction company related to one of the few remaining privately owned streets in New York. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client was sued by its neighbor who claimed an easement over the roadbed owned by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client. The neighbor, who resided on the street prior to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client, claimed that they had an easement over the land even before Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s client acquired...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Gets Back Terrace Space Belonging to Client

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by the unit owner of a new construction condominium in upper Manhattan in connection with a dispute concerning the size of the unit owner’s terrace. In particular, the amount of “as built” terrace area owned by our client was approximately 85 square feet (SF) larger than the area that the Condominium’s Board of Managers was permitting them to use. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. jumped into action to assist the unit owner in getting back...

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Sponsor’s Attempt to Avoid Liability for Construction Defects and to Limit Valid Claims of the Condominium Unit Owners Soundly Rejected by the Appellate Division

In a hotly contested dispute between the Board of a Condominium and the Sponsor of the Condominium, the Board brought suit alleging, among other things, that there were numerous construction defects that the Sponsor was obligated to remedy but failed to do so. The Board’s complaint noted that the defects included were not limited to the eleven most serious defects which were listed in the complaint. The complaint also referenced the engineer’s report which set forth other numerous defects. The...

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When Is Part Performance ‘Part Performance in Real Estate Cases’?

New York Law Journal

By Adam Leitman Bailey and John M. Desiderio Adam Leitman Bailey and John Desiderio discuss the issue of “part performance,” the doctrine of which can overcome the Statute of Frauds in circumstances when parties enter into unwritten deals and don’t contemplate all the possible circumstances that might arise in the course of their dealings. In my 27 years as a real estate litigator, until recently, I have never used the sword of part performance as much as I have been...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Landlord’s Partial Summary Judgment Motion Amidst Overlapping Claims in Parallel Holdover Proceeding

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a tenant to defend him in a summary holdover proceeding. The proceeding, however, was far from a garden variety holdover proceeding predicated upon the termination of a long-term month-to-month tenancy. Instead, the Landlord here was so enraged by the Tenant’s exercise of his lawful right in applying for the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERAP), which stayed the holdover proceeding pending a final determination of the Tenant’s eligibility under the Program, that they commenced...

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Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. Stops The Frick From Building Access Door That Would Crowd The Beautiful Block With Massive Long Lines and Development

Earlier in 2022, a prominent family representing the homeowners of 71st Street learned that The Frick had planned for a new entrance for an American with Disabilities Accessibility (ADA) ramp on their block. The alleged plan was to allow access to the back entrance, thus creating an alternate entry point for catering and event hall services. This could result in large amounts of people, traffic, delivery, and food trucks lining up on this tree-lined block. Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. jumped...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Statute of Limitations Argument in Foreclosure Action and Quiet Title Action

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained by a Lender in connection with a foreclosure action and a quiet title action. The Lender’s predecessor in interest commenced a prior foreclosure action in 2009 that was ultimately dismissed without prejudice by the First Department Appellate Division on November 21, 2019. In response to the dismissal of the foreclosure action, the Borrower commenced a quiet title action on May 28, 2020 seeking to discharge the mortgage as time-barred by the statute of limitations....

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C Utilizes “Zombie Foreclosure” Statute to Avoid Lengthy Foreclosure Process

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C was retained by a Lender in connection with a foreclosure action of a vacant and abandoned building. Instead of moving for an Order of Reference and then having a Referee compute the amount due, the firm utilized a recent law to file a combined and expedited motion for all aspects of the decision at once. On April 13, 2022, the firm moved for an Expedited Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale for Vacant and Abandoned property under...

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New York Law Journal Book Review: New York State Bar Association Real Estate Titles: The Practice of Real Estate Law in New York (4th ed.)

New York Law Journal

New York State Bar Association, 4th edition (July 4, 2020) I purchased the 2d edition of the New York State Bar Association’s Real Estate Titles over two decades ago. No dust ever accumulated on it, since it was in constant use, not only by me, but also by my colleagues who repeatedly borrowed it. Recently, I acquired the new 4th edition of Real Estate Titles, updated and now named “Real Estate Titles—The Practice of Real Estate Law in New York” (called Real Estate Titles...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Featured in Chambers Associate’s 2022 Guide

In the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, ALB associates can help “create miracles” in the real estate world. “The people here are considered high-caliber and relentless characters – and I knew I needed to work with them,” declared one of our interviewees right off the bat. This description gives you a good sense of the entrepreneurial energy at ALB, a relatively young (founded in 2000) but strong player in the field, with a penchant for all things real estate and all things...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Featured in Chambers Associate’s 2022 Guide

In the concrete jungle where dreams are made of, ALB associates can help “create miracles” in the real estate world. “The people here are considered high-caliber and relentless characters – and I knew I needed to work with them,” declared one of our interviewees right off the bat. This description gives you a good sense of the entrepreneurial energy at ALB, a relatively young (founded in 2000) but strong player in the field, with a penchant for all things real estate and all things...

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Chambers & Partners Ranks Adam Leitman Bailey as One of New York’s Top Real Estate Litigators in 2022

Chambers & Partners once again ranked Adam Leitman Bailey as one of the leading real estate litigators in New York.  Placing in the top 4 litigators ranked in New York, he is the only real estate litigator to also be awarded Martindale-Hubbell “AV” Preeminent rating, a Best Lawyers ranking for himself and his law firm, awarded by Super Lawyers as one of New York’s “Top 100” attorneys, and selected among America’s Top 100 Bet-The-Company Litigators. Chambers remarked that Adam Leitman...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Defeats Application for Stay Pending Appeal, Defeats Renewal Motion, and is Awarded Judgment Of Foreclosure and Sale

In a foreclosure action being repeatedly delayed by the tactics of the Borrower, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. was retained to change in as counsel for Plaintiff and aggressively complete the action to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale. The 2015 action was originally dismissed in 2018 for Plaintiff’s failure to timely move for the appointment of a referee. The Court later granted Plaintiff’s motion to vacate the dismissal, for summary judgment, and to appoint a referee. Defendant in opposition to...

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RPAPL §881—License To Permit Use of Adjacent Property During Construction Denied—Constant Unapproved Changes to Construction Plans Did Not Rise to The Level of Proof Required by RPAPL §881 and Permanent Change to Respondent’s Property Preclude the Granting of a §881 License—No Reimbursement of Expert and Attorney Fees When License Is Not Granted

New York Law Journal

A petitioner moved pursuant to RPAPL §881 (§881), for a license to enter upon the respondent’s property “for an extended period of time.” The respondent opposed the application and counterclaimed for reimbursement of expert fees, attorney fees and costs. The respondent’s property and the petitioner’s property share a common wall (south wall). The petition described construction that would occur along the east, south and west sides of the respondent’s property. The work would include, inter alia, removal of the south...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Successfully Navigates HUD Approval Process In Achieving Interest Rate Reduction Of A Senior Citizen Not-for-profit Housing Corporation’s Underlying Commercial Mortgage

Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. acts as general counsel to a not-for-profit housing company for senior citizens located in Brooklyn. The building in question was in dire need of various capital improvements and repairs, but with limited cash on hand to do so. The housing company sought to take advantage of pandemic-level interest rates to reduce the rate on the building’s existing mortgage, which would free up much needed cash for the building upgrades. The catch was, reducing the interest rate...

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Representing a Mitchell-Lama Cooperative, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Secures Surrender of Multiple Apartments in Non-Primary Residence Cases

Cooperative apartment buildings in New York governed by Mitchell-Lama Rules are required to ensure residents’ compliance with the rules. Akin to rent stabilization and rent control laws, shareholders must primarily reside in the apartment and may not generally sublet their apartment. When suspecting rules violations, management investigates whether unauthorized occupants are present in the apartment or whether shareholders are linked to other residences. Working with private investigators and performing our own due diligence, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. helped to identify...

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Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Secures A Highly Favorable Settlement On Behalf Of New Home Buyers Against A Developer That Breached Its Own Option Contract

Buyers who purchase homes in new developments can face a myriad of potential problems from construction delays to workmanship issues.  However, during the overheated upstate pandemic real estate rush, a new hazard arises when unscrupulous developers cancelled contracts in favor of better offers, which was the very situation faced by Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s clients, who paid for an option to purchase and build a new house in a luxury Orange County, N.Y.  community, only to have their deposit returned...

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