From left: former Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, 80 Riverside Boulevard and Gary Barnett, president of Extell Development

After nearly three years of litigation in multiple venues, a state Supreme Court judge ruled last week that former Attorney General Andrew Cuomo was correct in his 2010 order for the return of $16 million in disputed escrow deposits at the Rushmore condominium.

Justice Anil Singh, in a 15-page decision, ordered co-developers Carlyle Realty Partners and Extell Development, to return the deposits to 40 buyers at the 80 Riverside Boulevard tower. [more]

Rushmore and Extell’s Gary BarnettLawyers for Extell Development and Carlyle Realty Partners, which operate together as CRP/ Extell, admitted to the state attorney general that they had no evidence to back up claims that a typographical error led to a $16 million escrow dispute at the Rushmore condominium, according to new documents filed in New York State Supreme Court. Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed the evidence in response to an October 2010 suit by CRP/Extell that claimed the previous AG, Andrew Cuomo, erred in his April 2010 decision to order the Rushmore developer to refund deposits to 41individual buyers at the condo, at 80 Riverside Boulevard. [more]

Andrew Cuomo (top), Gary Barnett and the RushmoreA state Supreme Court judge ruled against former Attorney General Andrew Cuomo who filed to dismiss a lawsuit by developer Gary Barnett in the long running $16 million escrow fund dispute at the Rushmore condominium. The former AG argued that the developers, Barnett’s Extell Development and Carlyle Realty Partners, operating as CRP/Extell, missed a key deadline to challenge the April 9, 2010 ruling, in which Cuomo ordered them to refund deposits to 41 buyers at the 80 Riverside Boulevard building. [more]

Gary Barnett and the Rushmore

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo asked a state Supreme Court judge to dismiss a new lawsuit by Extell Development and Carlyle Realty Partners, arguing the developers missed the deadline to appeal his April 9 order to refund $16 million in escrow funds at the Upper West Side’s Rushmore.

The developers, operating under the name CRP/Extell, filed a suit last month in New York State Supreme Court, arguing that Cuomo erred in allowing 41 buyers to get out of their contracts at the condo building, at 80 Riverside Boulevard. [more]

 

A federal District Court judge dismissed a lawsuit by Carlyle Realty Partners and Extell Development against Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and ordered the release of $16 million in escrow deposits to buyers at the Rushmore condominium.

The combined entity, CRP/Extell, filed suit against Cuomo in May after he allowed 41 buyers to back out of their contracts at the condo, at 80 Riverside Boulevard. CRP/Extell argued that Cuomo deprived them of their 14th amendment rights when he ordered the rescission of the contracts. Judge George Daniels sided with the AG, who contended that the proper forum for an appeal was a so-called Article 78 lawsuit in New York State Supreme Court, and that federal court had no jurisdiction over the matter.

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Gary Barnett and the Rushmore

A federal appeals court has blocked the release of $16 million in escrow funds to buyers at the Rushmore condominium on the Upper West Side, allowing the developers to further argue their case aga [more]

The Rushmore and Gary Barnett

New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo filed a motion Friday to dismiss a last-minute lawsuit to block the return of $16 million in escrow funds at the Rushmore condominium, arguing that developers Carlyle Realty Partners and Extell Development cannot use federal courts to resolve a local dispute. The judge added that they failed to appeal the ruling in state Supreme Court, which is the normal procedure to appeal an AG ruling.

Cuomo’s office noted that lawyers for Carlyle and Extell, operating under the name CRP/Extell at the Upper West Side project, never challenged the AG’s authority to handle such matters during the 14-month investigation and never once complained about a lack of due process, during multiple face-to-face meetings with the AG’s office.

The move by CRP/Extell, wrote assistant AG Andrew Meier, who is representing Cuomo in the case, was done merely to deny the purchasers “rights of rescission and the return of their deposits to which they are entitled based upon the plain language of the plan that the plaintiff itself created and promulgated, simply because it is unhappy with the results of the process — not because the process was unfair.” [more]

Lawyers for Carlyle Realty Partners and Extell Development, the sponsors of the Rushmore condominium on the Upper West Side, said they plan to challenge last week’s order by Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to refund the deposits of 41 buyers, according to a court filing obtained by The Real Deal. In a letter to state Supreme Court Judge Debra James, lawyers for the sponsor, CRP/Extell, said they plan to file a so-called Article 78 that will challenge the AG ruling, and continue to argue that the disputed Sept. 1, 2008 rescission date was a “typographical error,” that should have been excused. “The AG decision concludes that certain purchasers have a right of rescission based on an obvious typographical error in a single digit in the 757-page offering plan for the Rushmore,” said Simpson Thatcher attorney Laura Murphy, who represents the two companies. The letter was in response to a demand by lawyers for Rushmore buyer Kelly Coffey to get documents and other evidence from CRP/Extell. Coffey, a managing director at JPMorgan Chase, is not one of the 41 buyers that complained to the AG, but filed a lawsuit in state Supreme Court seeking a return of her deposit. [more]