Real Estate Litigation

The Firm regularly is tapped by clients in disputes involving commercial and residential real estate. Illustrative of the matters we handle are those addressing cooperative-condominium issues; landlord-tenant issues; construction, fire and building regulations; building valuation; abutting property disputes; contracts of sale, mortgage commitments, receiverships, lien priorities, evictions, quiet-title actions and tax foreclosures.

ZEK's representation of clients in real estate litigation exemplifies the diversity of its practice and the depth of its experience. Sophisticated clients recognize that achieving a successful result in a real estate litigation related matter is a function of the professionalism and competence of their counsel and involves much more that merely prosecuting or defending a lawsuit. Because of our broad, multi-disciplinary experience we are able to efficiently and effectively litigate even the most complex issues that sometimes arise in real estate litigation.

For example, in the course of representing a lender in what could be characterized as a "routine" commercial foreclosure case, the Firm was thrust into litigating several thorny issues. The varied background of ZEK's attorneys was responsible for: defeating a borrower's lender liability claims which were the predicate for a motion to vacate the appointment of a rent receiver; representing the lender as a creditor in the bankruptcy case that the borrower subsequently filed; assisting the bankruptcy trustee in prosecuting a landlord/tenant action to terminate a fraudulent, long term, below-market commercial lease between the borrower and an affiliate; and ultimately representing the lender in negotiating the terms of the bankruptcy trustee's sale of the real estate free and clear of liens.

Similarly illustrative of the unusual types of cases the Firm has handled is a case in which it represented a lender in connection with a multi-million dollar loan secured by mortgages on real property in New York and California and shares of stock in New York cooperative housing corporations. A key legal issue involved the interplay of the California "one action rule" and strategies for enforcing multiple types of security interests.

ZEK also appeared on behalf of the trustee of a pool of collateralized mortgage-backed securities, and prosecuted a foreclosure action on a defaulted loan secured by a mortgage on a shopping center, whose anchor tenant filed for bankruptcy and rejected the lease. The case was resolved by restructuring the Borrower's obligations.

In another unusual case, ZEK represented a trustee of a pool of collateralized mortgage-backed securities in connection with a bankruptcy court ordered assumption of a lease for a regional retail distribution center. As part of its representation of the trustee, ZEK resolved multiple outstanding environmental issues arising from contamination of the site caused by a gasoline discharge.

Similarly, as counsel for the assignee of the successful bid at a public sale held in connection with a commercial foreclosure action, ZEK successfully pursued an action to terminate the rights of commercial tenants who held long-term below-market leases.

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