Schlesinger & Co., LLC v. SLG 220 News Owner LLC

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Barry R. Ostrager, J.), entered on or about March 17, 2016, which denied plaintiff’s motion for partial summary judgment on its cause of action for breach of a brokerage agreement as against defendant SLG 220 News Owner LLC, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiff failed to establish prima facie that the successor to the original tenant was, as required by the lease’s limitation on the right to exercise the option to renew, a “successor entity to [the original] Tenant,” i.e., that it had some measure of common ownership with the original tenant (see Matter of TBA Global, LLC v Fidus Partners, LLC, 132 AD3d 195, 210 [1st Dept 2015]). Plaintiff’s alternative interpretation of the limitation clause, that any assignee of the lease was a “successor entity,” would impermissibly read the limitation out of the lease (see God’s Battalion of Prayer Pentecostal Church, Inc. v Miele Assoc., LLP, 6 NY3d 371, 374 [2006]).