Amanda L. Nelson

Won summary judgment for a New York landlord on claims for rent and additional rent, and secured dismissal of the tenant's pandemic-related affirmative defenses. Among the issues raised in the lawsuit was whether New York's guaranty law applied to a mental health services business, with the court finding that it did not. This result was affirmed on appeal.

Secured an appellate victory for a cooperative corporation and members of its board in a suit, spanning two decades, filed by a famous fashion designer who sought to perform substantial alterations to his penthouses to create an enormous residence atop the building owned by the corporation. The unanimous Appellate Division not only dismissed the entire complaint against all but two of the individual defendants, but also dismissed various claims against the corporation at the pleading stage — including violation of the business corporations law, breach of fiduciary duty, fraudulent misrepresentation, and negligent misrepresentation — for which the plaintiff sought damages in excess of $50 million on each of four of the causes of action. Tahari v 860 Fifth Ave. Corp., 214 A.D.3d 491 (1st Dept. 2023).

Secured pre-discovery dismissal of claims brought by a disgruntled shareholder on behalf of members of the Board of a residential cooperative, and obtained a unanimous affirmance from the Appellate Division, First Department.

Won summary judgment on behalf of a construction manager as defendant in a breach of contract action centering on allegations that window leaks and improperly installed insulation compelled the plaintiff to give $1.4 million in rent credits to a tenant and to reconstruct a wall of the 89,000 sq. ft. building at issue. The client repaired the minor leaks, and discovery revealed that the lease did not require that rent credits be given and that the client was not given an opportunity to inspect the allegedly faulty insulation before the wall was reconstructed. Discovery further revealed that the tenant had been in arrears from the inception of its lease, leading us to argue that the plaintiff issued the credits in an effort to recoup the arrearage from the client. In granting summary judgment in the client's favor, the court found that that the lease did not require the rent credits to be given, and thus they were a nonrecoverable voluntary payment; that the insulation claim was made outside of the warranty period of the construction contract; and that the plaintiff spoliated the insulation evidence, thus precluding the claim for replacing the insulation.

Obtained dismissal of an Article 78/declaratory judgment proceeding on behalf of a not-for-profit farming cooperative in a matter centered on competing interpretations of an agricultural easement and restrictive covenant.

Won summary judgment, and then successfully defended the decision on appeal to the Appellate Division, First Department, on behalf of an apartment building managing agent in a personal injury case stemming from injuries that a child allegedly suffered as a result of exposure to lead-based paint. The court, as affirmed, found that our client could not be held liable because it was not on notice that a child resided in the apartment at issue.

Obtained pre-answer dismissal of a complaint filed in New York alleging claims of forgery and fraud in connection with a dispute between citizens of China and Norway over the ownership of real property in China. In granting the motion to dismiss, the court accepted our arguments that the claims against our clients (individual co-defendants) were time-barred and precluded by a 2015 judgment of a Chinese court pursuant to the doctrines of comity and res judicata, and in the alternative should be dismissed on forum non-conveniens grounds.

Represented an anonymous blogger in two separate but related cases arising out of the same operative facts. The judge in both underlying cases required pre-action disclosure of the identity of said blogger, who allegedly defamed a candidate running for office in a local election, holding that because the blogger accused the candidate of, among other things, engaging in actions that were "downright criminal," disclosure that might enable the candidate to bring an action for defamation was required. The Appellate Division reversed and dismissed both actions, holding that no reasonable reader would understand the blog statements as anything other than rhetoric in the heat of a hotly contested election campaign, and, thus, not statements of fact, but protected opinion.

Represented a commercial landlord in a complex rent dispute litigation concerning the method of calculation of annual rent, which resulted in a determination of summary judgment in favor of the landlord, as affirmed by the Appellate Division, First Department.

Represent construction companies in numerous actions brought pursuant to the New York Labor Law for personal injuries incurred on worksites.

Secured dismissal of negligence claims against a large national trucking company in the face of a $2.5 million settlement demand by a personal injury plaintiff, whose damages claim included lost future earnings. After the trial court found that issues of fact precluded summary judgment, we convinced each member of a four-judge appellate panel that when a defendant merely furnishes the occasion for an accident, but the accident itself is caused by a superseding and intervening cause, the defendant is entitled to dismissal as a matter of law.

Obtained a jury verdict in favor of a manufacturer of truck seats in a products liability action in which the client was joined as a third-party defendant. The case centered on career-ending injuries a truck driver claimed to have sustained due to allegedly defective welds in the seat frame, which caused the seat to collapse. The matter went to trial on claims of manufacturing defect and negligence after we won summary judgment before the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division on claims of breach of warranty and design defect. We convinced the jury that our client bore no fault for the plaintiff's injuries because the seat had been modified by his employer years after its manufacture. The plaintiff sought $500,000 in lost earnings as well as damages for pain and suffering.