Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. Attorneys Secures Settlement in Contentious Partition Actions
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. secures a settlement after carefully crafting a defense like no other.
The client came to Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., with a battle on her hands. Her former life partner, after their relationship soured, sought to partition two family properties and not grant her any part of the proceeds from resulting partition sales. In an effort to force Adam Leitman Bailey’s client to acquiesce in a parallel matrimonial negotiation, the former partner of the client sued her in two separate courtrooms to partition their two family homes, a Brooklyn apartment and an upstate New York country home.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., known for its aggressive litigation style, was determined to not let the client’s former life partner use parallel litigations to strong-arm her into accepting an unjust “matrimonial” settlement. However, the partition litigations involved legal obstacles which needed to be addressed; despite having lived with her former life partner and their two children, as a “family” for thirty years, our client had never married her former life partner. Moreover, although the client had selected the properties and developed them into family homes for their shared children, her name was not on either of the deeds, nor had she contributed any of her own finances into purchasing the properties.
Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., understood that there is more to property rights than being the “breadwinner”. For thirty years, our client had been the sole caretaker for the properties, the children, and her former partner, which entitled her to a rightful share of both properties. Using this information, having a deep understanding of partition laws, and how a court would view the situation, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C., developed our litigation strategy.
Understanding that our client was being pressured into an onerous and unfair matrimonial settlement, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. knew that this was a matter of showing force. In expedient fashion, Adam Leitman Bailey crafted an Answer with Counterclaims in both actions, showing (a) not only was our client entitled to her rightful share of the property, but also (b) that she was ready to fight for judicial recognition of her thirty-years’ time, effort, and mother/”wife” devotion to the care and wellbeing of her family — as the ground for obtaining her fair share.
In order to accomplish this goal, Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. determined it was necessary to include truthful allegations regarding highly sensitive facts, regarding how our client had been responsible for the care and treatment, over several years, of certain emotional and physical health issues of both her former life partner and their children.
The Answer with Counterclaims completely turned the tables around, and Adam Leitman Bailey P.C. put our client in the driver’s seat. Counsel for her former life partner raised objections to the graphic allegations involving the sensitive issues; and the parties agreed to negotiate amendments to our client’s pleadings, which would remove those facts from the “public” record, but which did not preclude our client from asserting and proving those facts in discovery and trial. Nevertheless, after filing our client’s Answers with Counterclaims, the matrimonial settlement kicked into high gear.
It was important to “buy time” for our client. Understanding that litigation costs can build quickly during discovery, Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C.’s attorneys crafted a strategy to delay discovery long enough for the matrimonial settlement to advance and be finalized. That is precisely what occurred. After appearing before one of the courts involved in client’s partner’s two actions, and advising that settlement was on the horizon, the court extended the discovery deadline. Adam Leitman Bailey, P.C. fought to extend the discovery dates knowing, that, by doing so, the parties would have time to conclude the ongoing parallel “matrimonial” negotiations, which would trigger the end of the partition litigations.
The result was achieved. Our client notified us shortly thereafter that a satisfactory matrimonial settlement agreement, which awarded her a fair share of the value of the properties, as opposed to zero, had been executed and all issues between the parties were resolved. The partitions actions ended with signatures on the dotted line. Adam Leitman Bailey P.C.’s showing of strength was on full display, while having avoided the substantial litigation costs which would otherwise have been required to litigate both cases in the absence of settlement.
Adam Leitman, Bailey, John M. Desiderio, and Caleb J. Brown successfully secured the favorable settlement for the client.