Appellate Division, Second Department: October 7, 2020

Motion to transfer venue denied where there was a real question as to whether the receiving forum could exercise personal jurisdiction over one defendant as the alleged contacts that might be sufficient to support personal jurisdiction were only conducted by that defendant's parent company.

Contractual waiver of the statutory right of partition was unenforceable where original signatories failed to limit the duration of the waiver, such that it constituted an unreasonable restraint on alienation.

Court applied ruling from sister district under doctrine of collateral estoppel where concurrent case in which plaintiff participated also litigated issue of patent invalidity for lack of written description.

Because a precautionary security interest could be created simultaneously with the assignment of pledged collateral, indentured parties who received the assignment granted them the beneficial interests of the property, such that the owners of the trusts that acquired the property owed the indentured parties fiduciary duties through the owners' control over the trusts.

Fraud claim arising from company purchase survived motion to dismiss where buyer could plead fraud arising from written misrepresentations in purchase agreement, which also contractually gave buyer the right to pursue intentional fraud claims that would necessarily arise from outside the contract.