The precise stroke of a pen is bringing an end to a lease for one commercial tenant.
Landlord Soloviev Group won a case against a kosher deli that has been leasing the ground floor of its Billionaires’ Row building. The case has dragged on for a decade, and an appeal is now on the table after a judge this week sided with the landlord’s claim that signatures at issue in the case had been forged.
“You can’t have a tenant just give you a fake lease,” said Alexander Estis with Rosenberg & Estis, representing the plaintiff. “And that’s why our client fought it for so long.”
The deli, Great American Health Bar, signed a 20-year lease with the building’s former owner in 2000. In 2006, the landlord, then called Solow Management, bought the property at 35 West 57th Street through an LLC for $24.4 million. At one point the landlord claimed the tenant defaulted on the lease, which the deli fought in court.
In 2014, the restaurant produced another amendment. This one was allegedly signed by the former owner before the sale. That document said the lease could continue until 2040 under certain conditions. But by the time the document was brought to light, the former owner and signatory had died.
Lawyers for the landlord argued that the document was fake. It wasn’t disclosed during prior litigation about the lease and only was revealed after the former owner’s death, making it too good to be true.
Defendants instead painted a picture of a wealthy landlord desperate to get a tenant out by any means necessary. If the document was forged, it wouldn’t have been five pages, including terms unfavorable to the tenant, lawyers for the deli argued during trial.
“There has just been a multitude of litigation because this landlord is on a tirade to get this last building, the last tenant,” defendants lawyers said during trial, “so they can demolish it and have a demolition site on this property.”
Both sides retained handwriting experts. Despite disagreements about other matters, the two came to similar conclusions that the potentially forged document was not signed by the same person who signed two other documents.
In her decision, Judge Margaret Chan also cast doubt on the deli owner’s testimony that he witnessed the owner sign the disputed amendment, which contradicted earlier statements.
“The only logical conclusion is that the Disputed Amendment is a forgery,” Chan wrote in her decision.
Michael Terk, a lawyer for the defendants with David Rozenholc & Associates, said his team believes the decision was an error and they are pursuing an appeal.
“Most of what is at issue is facts that are not referenced in the decision at all,” he said.
Lawyers for Soloviev said they were not privy to any development or demotion plans for the property.
“The case stands as a lesson to tenants,” said Norman Flitt, an attorney with Rosenberg & Estis representing the plaintiff. “No matter how elaborate your contrivance may be, truth will come to bear.”
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