Am Law 200 firm Greenspoon Marder's bid to escape a $520,000 suit brought by a document storage company that claimed it wasn't paying its bills fell short last week, with a Manhattan judge calling the law firm's argument that it had no contract with the vendor "unavailing."

Justice Andrew Borrok said it was clear that Cityside Archives had stated a claim for breach of contract in its complaint. Even though Jacob, Medinger & Finnegan, a New York firm acquired by Greenspoon in 2016, had its name on the contract with Cityside, Greenspoon Marder continued to send documents to and from Cityside's storage spaces after the acquisition and, until 2018, made payments on Cityside's invoices, the complaint alleges.

"It is beyond cavil that these allegations support the inference that there was a meeting of the minds and assent to the contract," the judge wrote. "The motion to dismiss the breach of contract claim therefore fails."

The rest of the claims—for unjust enrichment, promissory estoppel, implied breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing and declaratory judgment—were thrown out, with the judge noting that several of them were duplicative of the contract claim. Such claims are commonly pleaded in commercial disputes as a fail-safe, in case the contract claim is dismissed.

The suit sought around $471,000 when it was filed in May. That figure rose to $520,000 in a preliminary conference order filed last week, which specified that the parties expect discovery to be complete in about five months, by June 15.

David Gorvitz, a shareholder at Orloff, Lowenbach, Stifelman & Siegel who represents Cityside Archives, could not immediately comment. A media representative for Greenspoon Marder didn't respond to a request for comment on Monday.

Read More

Document Storage Vendor Sues Greenspoon Marder for $471K