Waiver is the relinquishment of a known right. Sometimes waiver is explicit. Sometimes, however, waiver results from a party sitting on a breach of contract for years and not treating it as a deal-breaker until it is looking for an excuse to terminate that contract. This sort of bad...
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Why You Should Be Careful Signing a Release of Claims
Aug 10, 2021 | Insights
When parties are ending a business arrangement, it is common for one side to be asked to sign a release of all present and future claims against the other party. Such releases are contracts and challenging them is always an uphill battle, even where a party is asserting fraud in the...
Attorneys and Litigants Beware – Making Assumptions Can Ruin Your Case and Get You Held in Contempt
Jun 16, 2021 | Breach of Contract, Case Study, Insights
The old adage “when you assume…” has particular significance for attorneys during litigation. In the recent decision in Iacovacci v. Brevet Holdings LLC, (Suffolk Supreme Index No. 158735/2016), assumptions and poor communications between an attorney and clients nearly cost the...
Unreasonable Reliance is Fatal to a Fraud Claim
May 26, 2021 | Insights
When a plaintiff sues for fraud, New York’s Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR) requires that the complaint provide sufficient facts to support the claim. CPLR § 3016(b) states that “the circumstances constituting the wrong shall be stated in detail.” This is important because if...
Lessons From Shoehorned Federal Court Jurisdiction
May 19, 2021 | Insights
Sometimes it’s best not to make a federal case out of it. This is the lesson from the recent decision in Nanobeak Biotech Inc. v. Barbera, 2021 WL 1393457 (S.D.N.Y. Apr. 13, 2021), involving a plaintiff corporation that tried but failed to get its lawsuit into federal court....
Text Messages Can Establish a Valid Contract
Jan 13, 2021 | Breach of Contract
They say, “No good deed goes unpunished,” but with the right lawyer, you may get rewarded after all. While it is not a good idea to do work for someone without a written contract, sometimes you can still prevail in a lawsuit as demonstrated in a recent case. Our firm helped a client...