Case Studies

Tannenbaum Helpern attorneys Vincent J. Syracuse and Maryann Stallone successfully represented the guarantors of a mortgage loan in the New York Court of Appeals. The Court affirmed the dismissal of the lender's claims against two individuals who had guaranteed the borrowers' obligations under a $13 million mortgage loan made to their real estate company. The lender subsequently agreed to a $2 million reduction in the amount owed on the loan, modified the loan documents to reflect that reduction, issued a payoff letter and accepted the borrowers' payment at the reduced amount. Nearly three years later, the lender filed an action against the guarantors attempting to hold them liable for the $2 million loan reduction. The case was dismissed in the lower courts and the lender appealed to the Court of Appeals. The Court of Appeals rejected the lender's attempt to get a $2 million judgment against the guarantors adopting our arguments that the lender lacked standing and lost the right to sue the guarantors because of various documents that were signed as part of the payoff of the loan.

Other Tannenbaum Helpern litigators involved in the case were Carl Regelmann and Hannah Furst.