Opinion
2021-03523 Index 650406/15
06-03-2021
In the Matter of Saro Cutri, Petitioner-Appellant, v. Josh Wolfe et al., Respondents-Respondents, Eric Rodie et al., Petitioners, Robert Paull et al., Respondents. Lux Capital Management, LLC, Nonparty Respondent. Appeal No. 13998 No. 2021-00517
Stinson LLP, New York (Kieran M. Corcoran of counsel), for appellant. Cooley LLP, New York (Philip M. Bowman of counsel), for respondents.
Stinson LLP, New York (Kieran M. Corcoran of counsel), for appellant.
Cooley LLP, New York (Philip M. Bowman of counsel), for respondents.
Before: Manzanet-Daniels, J.P., Kapnick, Mazzarelli, Oing, JJ.
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Debra A. James, J.), entered December 21, 2020, which denied petitioner Cutri's motion to hold respondents in contempt of court and to compel compliance with a judgment, same court and Justice, entered November 10, 2015, confirming a final arbitration award, unanimously affirmed, with costs.
Petitioner Cutri failed to show that the judgment confirming the final arbitration award expressed an unequivocal mandate either requiring respondents to allow him to invest in future Lux Capital Group (LCG) funds or prohibiting respondents from proposing a buyout of LCG members and merging LCG into Lux Capital Management (see El-Dehdan v El-Dehdan, 26 N.Y.3d 19, 29 [2015]). Although the arbitrators noted that they had based their decision in part on representations by the directors that included a pledge to allow LCG members to participate in future funds and that those commitments were binding, the pledges were made in the context of an acknowledgement by the directors that they could not guarantee that LCG members would receive any particular rate of "carry" and that all decisions had be taken in view of maximizing the potential success of the fund. No language in the award mandated any particular action on the part of the directors, and the concluding section of the award, which dismissed petitioners' claims, did not include any of the language from the section on the future of LCG.