Summary
In Mantek Servs. v. Rye Off. Assoc. (149 AD2d 671), as in the case now before the court, the plaintiff asserted that the actual square footage of the leased premises was not as represented in the lease.
Summary of this case from Mykonos Import-Export, Inc. v. 108-122 New South Road Realty Corp.Opinion
April 24, 1989
Appeal from the Supreme Court, Westchester County (Dachenhausen, J.).
Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, with costs, and that branch of the defendants' motion which was for summary judgment is granted and the complaint is dismissed.
The plaintiff seeks to reform a written lease on the ground of mutual mistake or, in the alternative, unilateral mistake accompanied by fraud. The plaintiff's claim revolves around its contention that the defendants misrepresented the measurement of the actual square footage of the leased premises, based upon which there were additional rental payments for escalated real estate taxes, wages and other expenses. Significantly, the record reveals that the plaintiff's president, in a deposition, conceded that he was aware that common areas would be included in the rental space, that he discussed this fact with his business associates and his attorney, that he never measured the space at issue, that he agreed with an analysis of the space in which the total actual square footage was in excess of the figure set forth in the lease and that at no time did he question or object to this calculation.
A party resisting pretrial dismissal of a reformation claim is required to tender "a very high order" of evidence in evidentiary form to overcome the "heavy presumption that a deliberately prepared and executed written instrument manifested the true intention of the parties" (Backer Mgt. Corp. v. Acme Quilting Co., 46 N.Y.2d 211, 219; Chimart Assocs. v. Paul, 66 N.Y.2d 570; Sagan v. Sagan, 53 N.Y.2d 635). Such a showing has not been made in this case. The plaintiff's proof submitted in opposition to the motion for summary judgment failed to demonstrate that the lease was at variance with the intention of either party or that the defendants fraudulently misrepresented the square-footage computations set forth in the lease. Accordingly, the defendants' motion for summary judgment should have been granted.
In view of this determination, we need not address the agency issues posed by the defendant Joseph P. Day Realty Corp. Thompson, J.P., Bracken, Kunzeman and Spatt, JJ., concur.