Bernice E. Margolis (Of Counsel-White Plains) and Scott H. Stopnik (Partner-White Plains) defended an engineering firm retained by a Co-op board to address leaks emanating from the building’s façade. In a case pending since 2012, the Co-op issued a notice of objectionable conduct predicated on the plaintiffs’ lease violations in denying access to owners and contractors to repair alleged leaks. The Co-op held a noticed meeting at which the shareholders elected in to terminate the plaintiffs’ Proprietary Lease by resolution. The plaintiffs commenced a third-party action against, among others, our client. After years of litigation and some 41 motions and multiple appeals, the court held that the only remaining causes of action in the main action were attorneys’ fees and additional rent owed to the cooperative as the prevailing party under the proprietary lease and to what extent the plaintiffs were entitled to credits for breach of the warranty of habitability and/or constructive eviction. Nonetheless, in May 2021, the plaintiffs filed a motion to reinstate the third-party action against our client nearly four years after it was discontinued from this action. In denying the motion, the court adopted Bernice and Scott’s arguments, stating that it would be prejudicial to allow such claims to be revived as the plaintiffs have failed to show any new facts. The court further noted the purported third-party complaint of the original plaintiff against a third-party defendant is a nullity, constituting a procedural morass and an end run around the proper procedure for amending a first-party complaint to add an additional defendant.