Opinion
570590/07.
Decided July 18, 2008.
Defendants Triangle Gold Jewelry Corp. and Robert Amato appeal from a judgment of the Civil Court of the City of New York, New York County (Stuart Cohen, JHO), entered February 22, 2007, after a nonjury trial, in favor of plaintiff and awarding it damages in the principal sum of $37,930.
PRESENT: McKEON, P.J., DAVIS, SCHOENFELD, JJ.
Judgment (Stuart Cohen, JHO), entered February 22, 2007, modified to vacate the judgment and dismiss the complaint as against defendant Robert Amato; as modified, judgment affirmed, with $25 costs.
It is well settled that when an agent acts on behalf of a disclosed principal, the agent will not be personally liable for breach of contract unless there is clear and explicit evidence of the agent's intention to be personally bound ( see I. Kaszirer Diamonds, Ltd. v Zohar Creations, Ltd., 146 AD2d 492, 494). "The fact that an agent signs the purported agreement in his own name is of no moment where the party alleging personal liability on the agent's part was aware that the agent was, in fact, acting as an agent for a disclosed principal" ( Leonard Holzer Assoc., Inc. v Orta, 250 AD2d 737). The trial evidence established, and it is not seriously disputed, that defendant Robert Amato (Amato) was an officer of defendant Triangle Gold Jewelry Corp. (Triangle) and accepted delivery of diamonds as an agent of the corporate defendant, and that throughout the eight-year business relationship between the parties, plaintiff regularly sold goods to Triangle once or twice a week, with the expressed knowledge that Amato worked for Triangle. Under these circumstances, and in the absence of any explicit evidence of the individual defendant's intention to be personally bound, the complaint insofar as asserted against Amato should have been dismissed.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF THE COURT.