Brokerage—Real Estate Broker Entitled to Half Commission Since Efforts Were Critical to Sale

i.e.

Broker, Seller and Purchaser each represents and warrants to the other that it has not dealt with any other broker in connection with this sale other than [Seller's broker] and [plaintiff] and Seller shall pay Broker any commission earned pursuant to a separate agreement between Seller and Broker….

The commission payable to the Selling Broker shall be the lessor of the Selling Broker Commission as described in both, or 50 percent of the total commission actually collected by the Exclusive Broker. No commission is due unless and until title passes to a broker procured by the Selling Broker and the commission is collected by the Exclusive Broker.

It was not meant by these cases,…that the broker must of necessity be present and an active participator in the agreement of buyer and seller when the agreement is actually concluded. He must just as effectively produce and create the agreement, though absent when it is completed and taking no part in the arrangement of its final details.

Comment: Saunders Ventures v. Morrow, Sup. Ct., Suffolk Co., Case No. 033638/2011, decided Feb. 20, 2018, Hudson, J.

Partition—Surrogate Court—Proceeding Dismissed for Lack of SubjectMatter Jurisdiction—Majority Owners of Real Property Were Not Directly Interested in the Estate's Administration

The Surrogate's Court's subject matter jurisdiction originates in the New York State Constitution which provides the court's power extends “over all actions and proceedings relating to the affairs of decedents, probate of wills, administration of estates and actions and proceedings arising thereunder or pertaining thereto”…. The Surrogate's Court Procedure Act legislatively codifies this grant of jurisdiction and states the Surrogate's Court's has “all the jurisdiction conferred upon it by the Constitution and all other authority and jurisdiction now or hereafter conferred upon the court by any general or special statute or provision of law, including this act”…. Indeed this court's powers are so broad that, “'for the Surrogate's Court to decline jurisdiction, it should be abundantly clear that the matter in controversy in no way affects the affairs of a decedent or the administration of his estate'”…. The Surrogate's Court powers to fulfill its jurisdictional mandate are “full and complete general jurisdiction in law and in equity to administer justice”…. Moreover, so long as the Surrogate's Court has subject matter jurisdiction over a controversy, its powers are equal to that of the Supreme Court…. Based upon this broad definition of this court's subject matter jurisdiction, an action for partition, would, at least conceptually, fall within this court's constitutional and statutory mandate….

In the Matter of the Estate of Parisi, Surrogate's Ct., Queens Co., Case No. 2017-1071/A, decided Feb. 6, 2018, Kelly, J.

Landlord-Tenant—Succession—Income Affidavit Is Not Conclusive Evidence

Comment: I n re Jian Min Lei v. New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, App. Div., 1st Dept., Index No. 157409/15, decided Feb. 15, 2018. Sweeny, J.P., Manzanet-Daniels, Gische, Kahn, Oing, JJ. All concur. Scott E. Mollen is a partner at Herrick, Feinstein.