On May 13, 2025, a New York court (Prager Metis CPAs LLC v. Koenig, Index No. 652000/2023) held that the non-compete/client non-solicitation clauses (often referred to as 'restrictive covenants') in a CPA firm's employment contract with its CPA employee were too broad (thus, unreasonable) and, therefore, granted summary judgment (without trial)...
Category: Business Disputes
Boilerplate clauses in contracts . . . are not “Miscellaneous”
Article published in the American Bar Association - Business Law Today
https://businesslawtoday.org/2025/04/perils-and-delights-of-contractual-boilerplate
Partnership Agreement formalities . . . technical compliance may outweigh practical compliance
If a contract (particularly a Partnership Agreement or other similar contract, such as an Operating Agreement or a Shareholders Agreement) requires that a particular notice be delivered "by" or "from" the Partnership (or by LLC or the corporation, as the case may be), that notice must clearly identify that it is ...
Promissory Notes and Personal Guaranties – “magic words” satisfy expedited collection under CPLR 3213
One of the benefits of being owed money under a promissory note (and, when applicable, a personal guaranty(ee)), in contrast to being owed money under an ordinary contract, is that the lender can qualify for an expedited procedure for collecting the debt under CPLR 3213. To qualify for CPLR 3213, the instrument...
When Can the Covenant of Good Faith and Fair Dealing Be Invoked? (ABA article)
https://businesslawtoday.org/2024/02/when-can-the-covenant-of-good-faith-and-fair-dealing-be-invoked
Contract is enforceable even if the price/fee to be paid is not specific . . . “sufficiently definite” satisfies the required legal standard
In Daiwa Corporate Advisory LLC v. Katapult Group, Inc. (NY County Supreme Court, Index No. 652164/2021), the trial court held that a contract is enforceable where the fees payable were to be “mutually-agreed” based on “customary and . . . similar transactions and practices in the investment banking industry.”
Blog Series: An Ounce of Precision in Contracts – Dispute Resolution
***This blog posting is one in a series that we anticipate posting specifically regarding the importance of spending additional time to carefully review and to write--with precision--the various clauses in business documents in general, and specifically in contracts.***
In FFS Data Corp. v. The OLB...
A Forum Selection Clause in Entity Resolutions? Not Necessary! Think again . . . A NY Court disagrees.
In Meltzer v. Kentucky Hi Tech Greenhouses LLC, 2023 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 160, the Manager of a Kentucky LLC filed a lawsuit in New York against the LLC to recover unpaid wages purportedly owed to the Manager by the Kentucky LLC. The LLC moved to dismiss the lawsuit...
Business intermediary’s mistake in the NDA that it signed with the Buyer (on behalf of the Seller) is not actionable by the Seller against the Buyer.
In Protégé Biomedical, LLC v. Duff & Phelps Securities, LLC, et al., the business seller disclosed confidential information on a telephone call with a prospective buyer corporation. Instead of purchasing the seller's business, the prospective buyer corporation used the seller's confidential information to create its own competing product.
But that is now how we normally do it . . . Too bad . . . The LLC Operating Agreement prevails!
A minority owner of an LLC prevailed against the majority owners who tried to dilute the minority owner's percentage ownership of the LLC by issuing additional membership interests without the minority owner's approval.
In Lengyel-Fushimi v. Bellis (Kings Supt. Ct. Index No. 512764/2021), the Court held that a...