Grill and Gise Defeat Reargument Motion and Obtain Judgments in Sweeping Victory

January 30, 2020 | Real Estate, Zoning & Land Use | Commercial Litigation

David M. Grill and David Gise defeated an effort by a defaulting corporation to reargue a decision issued recently by Justice McCormack of the Nassau County Supreme Court. The two attorneys obtained a default judgment against a defendant corporation in which the defendant claimed the default should be excused because the defendant’s principal was unaware that a corporation cannot appear pro se.

In denying reargument, the Court stated unequivocally that the principal’s timely filing of an answer on her own behalf, coupled with her decision not to seek counsel for the corporation until after a motion for a default judgment had been filed, demonstrated knowledge and willful disregard of the necessity of answering. This rendered her excuses of purported ignorance of the law and “being too busy with work” unreasonable.

In a virtually complete victory for Rivkin Radler’s landlord client, the Court, following an inquest, issued judgments in favor of Rivkin’s landlord client and against the former tenant (which had defaulted on its lease and abandoned the leased premises), its successor entity and the principals of the entities in the amount of more than $186,000.

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