653381/16. IN RE KRAMER LEVIN NAFTALIS & FRANKEL LLP, ET AL., pet-res, v. MICHAEL C. CORNELL, ET AL., res-app — Jeffrey A. Jannuzzo, New York, for ap — Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, New York (Paul Spagnoletti of counsel), for res — Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Anil C. Singh, J.), entered July 15, 2016, which granted the petition to permanently stay arbitration, and denied respondents’ motions to dismiss the proceeding and to seal the record, unanimously affirmed, with costs.
Respondents failed to demonstrate that the parties agreed to arbitrate the subject dispute (see Matter of Cammarata v. InfoExchange, Inc., 122 AD3d 459, 460 [1st Dept 2014]). The potential future benefit, if any, flowing to petitioners from the attorney release in the separation agreement containing the arbitration clause is “too attenuatedjustify…an exception to the usual rule that nonsignatories cannot be compelled to arbitrate” (Matter of Belzberg v. Verus Invs. Holdings Inc., 21 NY3d 626, 634 [2013]; compare Matter of SSL Intl., PLC v. Zook, 44 AD3d 429 [1st Dept 2007] [nonsignatory to license agreement appropriately compelled to arbitrate where it marketed products using technology covered by agreement]; HRH Constr. LLC v. Metropolitan Transp. Auth., 33 AD3d 568 [1st Dept 2006] [nonsignatory received monetary benefit under agreement]). There is no evidence that petitioners “knowingly exploit[ed]” the benefits of the agreement (see Belzberg, 21 NY3d at 631). The allegations against petitioners show, if anything, that they “ may have ‘exploit[ed] the contractual relation of the parties, but not the agreement itself’” (Cammarata, 122 AD3d at 460, quoting Belzberg, 21 NY3d at 631).
