Summary
In Royal Discount Corp. v Luxor Motor Sales Corp. (9 Misc.2d 307 [App Term, 1st Dept 1957]), it was ruled that the "terms `costs' and `expenses' as employed in the assignment agreement do not include attorney's fees, and attorney's fees are not recoverable in the absence of express language in the contract or statute" (at 308).
Summary of this case from Bank of N.Y. v. Fleet BankOpinion
December 19, 1957
Appeal from the Municipal Court of the City of New York, Borough of Manhattan, JOSEPH RAIMO, J.
Irving G. Schleimer for appellant.
Daniel Rosen for respondent.
An assignment of a retail installment contract, by which the seller warrants that the cash down payment specified as having been paid by the purchaser was actually paid, is breached when the proof establishes that the down payment was in fact less than the amount so warranted ( Commercial Credit Corp. v. Third Lafayette Sts. Garage, 226 App. Div. 235; Northeast Discount Corp. v. Queens Hill Motors, 150 N.Y.S.2d 848).
The terms "costs" and "expenses" as employed in the assignment agreement do not include attorney's fees, and attorney's fees are not recoverable in the absence of express language in the contract or statute ( Hayman v. Morris, 37 N.Y.S.2d 884).
The judgment should be reversed, with $30 costs, and judgment directed for the plaintiff in the sum of $426.13, with interest and costs.
HOFSTADTER, STEUER and HECHT, JJ., concur.
Judgment reversed, etc.