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Goldstein v. Plotnicki

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department
Jan 30, 2003
301 A.D.2d 483 (N.Y. App. Div. 2003)

Opinion

92

January 30, 2003.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Ira Gammerman, J.), entered June 3, 2002, granting petitioner's motion insofar as to direct compliance with certain provisions of the parties' settlement agreement, unanimously affirmed, with costs.

Howard B. Sirota, for Petitioner-Respondent.

David Rosenberg, for Respondent-Appellant.

Before: Tom, J.P., Mazzarelli, Sullivan, Williams, Gonzalez, JJ.


The court properly directed compliance with the unambiguous terms of the parties' settlement agreement without resort to extrinsic evidence (see W.W.W. Assocs. v. Giancontieri, 77 N.Y.2d 157, 162-163; Unisys Corp. v. Hercules Inc., 224 A.D.2d 365, 367; Sharp v. Stavisky, 221 A.D.2d 216, lv dismissed 87 N.Y.2d 968). The agreement as a whole, including the appraisal process set forth therein, establishes that the parties intended a transfer of title to intellectual property valued at $250,000. Appellant's argument that the settlement only granted petitioner a license to intellectual property rights until petitioner earned $250,000 is not supported by the agreement which makes no reference to a license and does not temporally limit the rights transferred. If the rights transferred were to be limited to a specific period, language to that effect should have been included in the settlement agreement (see Greenfield v. Philles Records, 98 N.Y.2d 562, 571-572, 2002 N.Y. LEXIS 3146, *12). In the absence of any ambiguity, the court was not required to consider extrinsic evidence of appellant's expert, and no evidentiary hearing was required (see W.W.W. Assocs. v. Giancontieri, supra).

THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.


Summaries of

Goldstein v. Plotnicki

Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department
Jan 30, 2003
301 A.D.2d 483 (N.Y. App. Div. 2003)
Case details for

Goldstein v. Plotnicki

Case Details

Full title:IN RE APPLICATION OF BURT GOLDSTEIN, ETC., Petitioner-Respondent, FOR THE…

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

Date published: Jan 30, 2003

Citations

301 A.D.2d 483 (N.Y. App. Div. 2003)
753 N.Y.S.2d 510

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