Commercial building owner represented by us brought action against real estate brokers for tortious interference with contract. The Supreme Court, New York County, denied brokers’ motion to dismiss, and they appealed. The Supreme Court, Appellate Division, held that owner’s allegation provided fair notice of the necessary “but for” causation between the alleged negotiations and the lessee’s alleged breach of lease. For purposes of commercial building owner’s claim for tortious interference with an existing contract, owner’s allegation that real estate brokers continued to negotiate to obtain space elsewhere for owner’s contract lessee, despite their knowledge that there was a fully executed lease already in existence, was properly understood as alleging not merely that brokers negotiated during the single day between the execution of the lease and the lessee’s repudiation, but that they improperly continued the negotiations begun earlier, and therefore the allegation provided fair notice of the necessary “but for” causation between the alleged negotiations and the lessee’s alleged breach of lease.  Link to Full Text of Decision

itkowitz.com