Case Notes in
2012
Category
- Access
- Alterations
- Appeals
- Arbitration
- Assessment
- Attorney Fees
- Attorney-Client
- Authority to Sue
- Balcony/Terrace Rights
- Bike Lane
- Board of Directors
- Books and Records
- Breach of Lease
- Business Judgment Rule
- Bylaws
- Bylaws/House Rules
- Certificate of Occupancy
- Charges/Fees
- Commercial Unit
- Common Element
- Common Elements
- Companion Animal
- Constitutionality
- Construction Defects
- Contracts
- Conversion
- Defamation
- Discovery
- Discrimination
- Due Diligence
- Easement
- Elections
- Estate
- Eviction
- Eviction/Termination
- Fiduciary Duty
- Fines
- Foreclosure
- Fraud
- Governance
- Gym
- House Rules
- Indemnification
- Indemnification/Subrogation
- Injunction
- Insurance
- Labor Law
- Liability of Directors
- Licenses
- Liens
- Maintenance
- Malpractice
- Management
- Mechanic's Lien
- Misrepresentations
- Motion Practice
- Motion Practive
- Negligence
- Notice of Pendency
- Nuisance
- Occupancy Agreement
- Ownership
- Parking
- Partnership
- Personal Injury
- Pets
- Property Damage
- Proprietary Lease
- Reasonableness
- Receivership
- Release
- Repairs
- Representations
- Sales
- Service of Process
- Sponsor
- Statute of Limitations
- Stock/Shares
- Stocks/Shares
- Sublets
- Succession Rights
- Tax
- Third-Party Liability
- Transfers
- Trespassing
- Trial Practice
- Violations
- Warranty of Habitability
- Yellowstone Injunction
- Zoning
First published: Jan 2012
Hubshman v. 1010 Tenants Corp. and Carroll v. RadoniqiThese two cases discuss, among other things, a board’s duties to its apartment owners and, we believe, turn in part on procedural issues. The court in both of these actions (the same judge decided both within a month of each other) considered the procedural posture of the motions. Where a motion to dismiss is made, every favorable inference in the pleadings must be given to the plaintiff; when a motion for summary judgment is made, the court has the right to look beyond the pleadings and determine if there are any triable issues of fact that would preclude a grant of judgment. A motion to dismiss is a more difficult standard for a defendant, whereby a motion for summary judgment allows the court to search the record. In addition, the court dismissed the derivative claims brought by the plaintiffs in both actions “on behalf of” their respective co-op and condominium, acknowledging the deference that must be provided to the board under the Business Judgment Rule and, in the Carroll case, the condominium’s bylaws. The court made what we believe is an interesting distinction concerning the breach of fiduciary duty claims in the Hubshman case. There, the court determined (as have other, recent cases) that the cooperative housing corporation owes no fiduciary obligation to its shareholders. Further, the individual board members could not be found to have breached their fiduciary obligations absent allegations that they engaged in inappropriate conduct separate and independent from their actions as members of the board. Yet the court sustained an action against the cooperative “board,” having found that a board owes a duty to the shareholders, which we believe is a novel holding in the cooperative corporation field. We are not certain how this claim will ultimately be determined.
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