Photo: Cityside Archives/Facebook

A New Jersey-based document storage company sued Florida-based Greenspoon Marder in Manhattan Supreme Court on Wednesday, claiming the law firm has refused to pick up its documents or pay $471,000 in bills.

Cityside Archives said it had long done business with Jacob Medinger & Finnegan, a nine-lawyer firm that was acquired by Greenspoon in 2016, and continued to move Greenspoon's files in and out of storage at its request after the tie-up. After 22 months, however, Greenspoon stopped paying its bills, the suit claims.

The complaint said Joel Sanders, the convicted ex-Dewey & LeBoeuf executive who became Greenspoon's chief operating officer and was released from jail on the law firm's dime, “promised” to make things right in September 2018. Greenspoon subsequently paid a couple bills from 2018, but it has now taken the line that only Jacob Medinger—which no longer exists—can be held liable to Cityside, the complaint said.

“[D]espite paying invoices for nearly two years and making multiple requests to Cityside in connection with the stored materials, [Greenspoon argued] it had not assumed the agreement” that Jacob Medinger had signed, the complaint said.

Cityside Archives, which is represented by Orloff, Lowenbach, Stifelman & Siegel, said in a January letter to Greenspoon that it had to pick up its records by Feb. 28 and they would be destroyed starting April 15, according to court records. In the complaint, Cityside said it still had some 10,000 of Greenspoon's boxes in its inventory as of April 4.

The complaint seeks a declaration that Greenspoon is bound by the Jacob Medinger contract, that it has breached the contract and that it violated various state-law obligations. The storage company says Greenspoon owes over $471,000.

Greenspoon said in a letter included as an exhibit to the complaint that it would “vigorously defend any lawsuit.” Michelle Martinez Reyes, Greenspoon's chief marketing officer, declined to comment.