Commercial Litigation

In a set of foreclosure cases decided in late February, the Court of Appeals resolved some of the questions that have plagued New York's court system in the aftermath of last decade's mortgage crisis.

The New York Court of Appeals' recent decision in Peyton v. BSA held, in the context of a zoning lot containing several residential buildings, that the Zoning Resolution of the City of New York does not require an area to be accessible to all residents of the zoning lot for the area to qualify as "open space."

In The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York v. D'Agostino Supermarkets, the NY Court of Appeals split on the issue of whether the relevant damages clause in a commercial lease was unenforceable as a matter of law because it was so grossly disproportionate to the ascertainable amount due upon full performance.

This article provides a brief overview of the SBRA and these first several months of its use — especially in light of the COVID-19 pandemic — concluding that in 2021, Congress should permanently adopt the CARES Act's expanded definition of a "small business debtor" as including businesses with up to $7.5 million in aggregate non-contingent liquidated debts.

During periods of distress in the real estate industry, if a lender is not going to enter into a consensual workout or loan restructuring with their defaulted borrower, the lender will be presented with the choice of either enforcing rights under its loan documents or marketing and selling the distressed loan.

As their commercial leases approach expiration and renewal, law firms are renegotiating the future of in-office legal work. For many, the "new normal" will feature an efficient floor plan that deemphasizes personal offices while paradoxically accommodating a growing attorney headcount.

Part Two In a Series In this part of the series on "zoning" bonuses in the city of Philadelphia, we explore Floor Area Bonuses provided under the Mixed Incoming Housing, Green Building, and Underground Accessory Parking & Loading Bonuses.

Lenders in default scenarios face a choice of whether to exercise remedies and take over their collateral, or offer relief measures to their borrowers, either in the form of short-term forbearance or a permanent loan modification.