Michael J. Antongiovanni Obtained Appellate Victory Dismissing Breach of Contract Claim and $2 Million In Damages

Litigation partner, Michael J. Antongiovanni, recently obtained an appellate victory in the Appellate Division, Second Department, affirming the lower court’s grant of summary judgment dismissing a plaintiff’s claim for an alleged breach of a commercial lease and $2 million dollars in damages. Plaintiff claimed that the client’s sale of her shares of a corporation triggered plaintiff’s right of first refusal under its commercial lease of the real property owned by the corporation. Mr. Antongiovanni successfully argued before the lower court and again on appeal that structuring the transaction as a corporate stock sale was based on a legitimate business purpose and not in bad faith. Thus, the right of first refusal was not triggered by the stock transaction.