Braverman Greenspun principal, Tracy Peterson, and associate, Fletcher Corley, obtained a significant victory in the New York State Supreme Court, New York County, on behalf of a residential board in a dispute with the main condominium board of a mixed-use – residential, hotel, and commercial – condominium in downtown Manhattan.
The residential board found itself in a precarious financial situation due to the condominium board’s failure to pursue substantial arrears owed by the hotel unit owner. Although the residential section holds nearly 60% of the condominium’s common interest, the condominium’s governing documents allocate four of the seven board seats to the commercial unit owners—effectively giving control to the hotel, whose ownership interest dwarfs the other commercial units. When the hotel unit owner fell into arrears of over half a million dollars, the hotel-controlled condominium board refused to act, leaving the condominium unable to pay vendors or utilities and prompting threats of mechanic’s liens and service interruptions.
Faced with these circumstances, the residential board filed a lawsuit against the hotel unit owner and the four condominium board members who the hotel unit owner had seated on the board. The action asserts derivative claims to collect the hotel’s arrears, and direct breach of fiduciary duty claims against the individual board member defendants. The residential board also sought temporary and preliminary “emergency” relief under the condominium’s bylaws, prohibiting the hotel-appointed members of the board from taking any action on behalf of the board and authorizing the three remaining (residential) members to act on behalf of the condominium until the arrears are paid.
In July 2025, the Court granted temporary relief, restraining the hotel-elected board members from participating in condominium board determinations until the arrears were paid. After oral argument on October 21, 2025, the Court granted the residential board all the relief sought—extending the temporary restraining order and declaring that the residential members of the condominium board may take action on behalf of the condominium board without participation from the hotel-elected members until the hotel’s outstanding balance, and any additional accruals, are paid in full.
A copy of the Court’s decision can be found here.