The following e-filed documents, listed by NYSCEF document number (Motion 003) 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56 were read on this motion to/for SUMMARY JUDGMENT (AFTER JOINDER). DECISION ORDER ON MOTION In this action regarding breach of contract, tortious interference, and misappropriation of trade secrets, plaintiff/counterclaim defendant Jason Walker and counterclaim defendant JWalker Realty LLC move pursuant to CPLR 3212 for summary judgment to dismiss defendant Natasha Page’s counterclaims for (1) breach of contract; (2) promissory estoppel; (3) injurious falsehood; (4) slander/ defamation/libel; (5) violation of Labor Law §191(1)(c) for failure to pay wages; (6) violation of Labor Law §215 for retaliation and wrongful discharge; (7) unjust enrichment; and (8) quantum meruit (NYSCEF # 48). Page does not oppose the motion and submitted a letter to the court explicitly declining to oppose it (NYSCEF #56). The Decision and Order is as follows: PROCEDURAL HISTORY As a backdrop to this suit, the issues revolve around whether there was an employer/employee or an independent contractor relationship between plaintiff Jason Walker as the alleged employer and defendant Natasha Page as the alleged employee or independent contractor. Notably, there is a companion case that Natasha Page commenced during the pendency of this action against Jason Walker and JWalker Realty LLC (“the Walker parties”) under Index No. 158660/2018 alleging employment discrimination. The Walker parties moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3012(b). Oral argument on the motion was scheduled for February 20, 2019. Plaintiff Natasha Page defaulted and gave no reason for her failure to appear. This court dismissed plaintiff Page’s action not on her default but on the deficiency of the service of the complaint (NYSCEF # 54 — Decision/Order of this court on Page v. Walker, Index No. 158660/2018 dated May 10, 2019). Page then commenced a new action in an unverified complaint to refile her discrimination claims in Page v. Walker under Index No. 161002/2019. As for the instant matter, plaintiff Jason Walker commenced this action September 1, 2017, and served his complaint on defendant Natasha Page on November 13, 2017 (NYSCEF ## 46, 47). On December 11, 2017, defendant filed an answer with counterclaims, bringing JWalker into this dispute solely as a counterclaim defendant (NYSCEF # 48). On December 29, 2017, plaintiff moved to dismiss the counterclaims in Motion Sequence 1 (NYSCEF # 6). Rather than opposing the motion, defendant instead filed an amended answer with new counterclaims on February 1, 2018 (NYSCEF #18). The counterclaim defendants served an answer to defendant’s counterclaims on March 7, 2018, and document demands and interrogatories seeking information on the counterclaims on October 11, 2018 (NYSCEF ## 23, 33-34). Defendant did not respond to the demands. On December 14, 2018, plaintiff served a motion to strike the answer and counterclaims as a sanction for failing to respond to the demands (NYSCEF #27). That motion was resolved on January 30, 2019, by stipulation which provided for a conditional preclusion order unless defendant provided full and complete responses to the counterclaim defendants’ demands by February 8, 2019 (NYSCEF #36). The deadline came and went without any response from defendant. Thus, on February 20, 2019, this court issued a preclusion order which granted the counterclaim defendants’ motion precluding defendant from “presenting or introducing at trial or at any stage of the litigation any evidence or documents or information which is or would have been responsive to the demands, or any testimony relating thereto, unless defendant provides full and complete responses to all of the demands on or before February 8, 2019″ (NYSCEF #37). Defendant never responded to any of the demands and the Order became self-executing. Plaintiff filed his Note of Issue in this matter on November 12, 2019 (NYSCEF #41). FACTS Defendant Page’s counterclaims in the instant action allege that she was hired as an employee by JWalker in October 2015 where she was assigned to work in real estate sales for Core Marketing Group, LLC (“Core”) as part of the “Walker Team” (NYSCEF # 48, 63)1. Defendant alleges that “[p]ursuant to [her] independent contractor agreement, any salary or commissions owed to her were to be paid by her assigned Associate Broker, the counterclaim defendants. Her payment was to be 50 percent of commissions for any sales or rentals that she worked on with Walker” (id., 68). Defendant claims that the counterclaim defendants failed to pay the promised commissions and wages; retaliated against her for complaining about her wages and wrongfully terminated her; and spread rumors about her thereby damaging her reputation (id.,
119-132, 156). Counterclaim defendants submit the affidavit of Jason Walker, which refutes all of the counterclaims as baseless (NYSCEF #44 — Aff of Walker). Walker avers that he never hired Page as a JWalker employee and never agreed to pay her salary or commissions (id.,
