Peter J. Larkin (Partner-White Plains, NY), cochair of Wilson Elser’s Accountants Practice, along with Scott Wenzel (Of Counsel-White Plains, NY) and Rebekah K. Salas Mercer (Associate-White Plains, NY), secured a defense verdict in the Commercial Division of New York Supreme Court, New York County, for Wilson Elser’s client in a breach of contract dispute concerning the ownership and sale of a limited liability company established in 2007.
 
The defendant alleged, among other things, that an amendment to the company’s operating agreement, which transferred a 5% stake in the company to our client, was null and void, so the plaintiff was entitled to an additional 5% of the proceeds from the $26.5 million sale of the company in 2020. 
 
During the plaintiff’s cross-examination, Peter Larkin highlighted to the jury the plaintiff’s shifting and conflicting account of when the amended operating agreement was signed by the parties and extracted several admissions from the plaintiff that his conduct in the years leading up to the lawsuit was inconsistent with his claim that he had not sold our client 5% of the company.
 
The trial team then successfully argued several issues in connection with the jury charge and landed a defense friendly verdict sheet, requiring the jury to answer over twenty questions, the majority of which were focused on our client’s affirmative defenses of estoppel and unclean hands. 
 
After a week-long trial, the jury returned a complete defense verdict in less than two hours, finding that our client did not breach any contract, and that even if he had, our client’s affirmative defenses barred the plaintiff from any recovery. In addition, the jury awarded our client damages for his own breach of contract counterclaims.