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Lombardi v. Spera

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Jun 19, 1989
151 A.D.2d 649 (N.Y. App. Div. 1989)

Opinion

June 19, 1989

Appeal from the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (McCarthy, J.).


Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, without costs or disbursements.

We agree with the trial court's dismissal of the plaintiff's action for specific performance of an option to purchase contained in a rider to a lease. The parties' dispute centers on whether the option agreement covered four lots, as the plaintiff contends, or, as the defendant contends, merely covered two of those lots. When read as a whole, there is no ambiguity in the agreement. The subject of the entire agreement was 200 Ronkonkoma Avenue, located on lot 1, and the vacant lot 2. No mention in the agreement was made of lots 1 through 4 as an entity. For the court to resort to extrinsic evidence, the ambiguity must be found in the document itself not in the parties' subjective intention, especially when the action is one for specific performance. Such being the case, no extrinsic evidence may be resorted to in an attempt to read the plaintiff's subjective intention into the agreement (see, Bethlehem Steel Co. v. Turner Constr. Co., 2 N.Y.2d 456, 460; Interested Underwriters v. Ducor's Inc., 103 A.D.2d 76, 78; Peripheral Equip. v. Farrington Mfg. Co., 29 A.D.2d 11, 13). Mollen, P.J., Mangano, Kooper and Spatt, JJ., concur.


Summaries of

Lombardi v. Spera

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department
Jun 19, 1989
151 A.D.2d 649 (N.Y. App. Div. 1989)
Case details for

Lombardi v. Spera

Case Details

Full title:CAROL L. LOMBARDI, Appellant, v. MARGARET SPERA, Respondent

Court:Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, Second Department

Date published: Jun 19, 1989

Citations

151 A.D.2d 649 (N.Y. App. Div. 1989)
542 N.Y.S.2d 709

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