77 A.D.2d 831 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1980
Order, Supreme Court, New York County, entered October 23, 1979, denying the motion of defendants for summary judgment or, in the alternative, to dismiss the complaint, reversed, on the law, and the motion to dismiss granted, without costs and without disbursements. This is an action to recover money allegedly due plaintiff under a contract or, in the alternative, to recover a finder’s fee for bringing to defendant certain business opportunities. There are two causes of action, one for breach of contract, and the second for compensatory and punitive damages caused by defendants’ fraudulent conduct. Robert S. Taplinger Associates, Inc. (RSTA), is a corporate and financial public relations firm which had as one of its clients defendant San Juan Racing Association, Inc. (SJRA). RSTA was authorized by written agreement dated February 15, 1968, to generate and structure proposed new corporate development activities for SJRA. Plaintiff, who had become associated with RSTA in May of 1968, had participated in some dealings on this account before submitting the proposal at issue on July 24, 1968. Plaintiff claims he presented a proposal to SJRA and its president, defendant Glickstein, to establish a communications company, with defendants Cossman and Sylvan Taplinger as managers, in which he, RSTA, Cossman, and Sylvan Taplinger would have participating stock interests. Plaintiff also claims that, as part of the proposal, he identified three radio stations which SJRA later acquired and for which he claims finders’ fees for himself and for RSTA. Such a communications company was formed thereafter in 1968, and the defendants-appellants did reap financial benefits therefrom. In denying the motion, Special Term ruled first that the motion papers were fatally defective