Morrone v. CostagliolaMorrone v. Costagliola
Ordered that the judgment is affirmed, with costs.
“In reviewing a determination made after a nonjury trial, this Court‘s power is as broad as that of the trial court, and it may render the judgment it finds warranted by the facts, taking into account that in a close case the trial court had the ‘advantage of seeing and hearing the witnesses‘” (Quadrozzi v Estate of Quadrozzi, 99 AD3d 688, 691 [2012], quoting BRK Props., Inc. v Wagner Ziv Plumbing & Heating Corp., 89 AD3d 883, 884 [2011]; see Northern Westchester Professional Park Assoc. v Town of Bedford, 60 NY2d 492, 499 [1983]). Where the court‘s findings of fact “rest in large measure on considerations relating to the credibility of witnesses,” deference is owed to the trial court‘s credibility determinations” (Tornheim v Blue & White Food Prods. Corp., 88 AD3d 867, 868 [2011], quoting Anderson v Mastrangelo, 18 AD3d 677, 677 [2005]; see Trimarco v Data Treasury Corp., 146 AD3d 1004, 1007-1008 [2017]).
Here, according deference to the Supreme Court‘s credibility assessments, the determination that the parties orally entered into a series of valid personal loan agreements that the defendant Ralph T. Costagliola breached by failing to repay was warranted by the facts. Moreover, contrary to Costagliola‘s contention, the loans were not void under the statute of frauds (see
Eng, P.J., Leventhal, Austin and Cohen, JJ., concur.