Priel v. Heby
New York Law Journal
Volume 231
Copyright 2004 ALM Properties, Inc. All rights reserved
Thursday, June 10, 2004 Legal_Briefs
PRIEL V. HEBY
STATUTE OF FRAUDS DOES NOT BAR ORAL AGREEMENT FOR JOINT VENTURE DEALING WITH REALTY PURCHASES
NEW YORK
Business Law
Supreme Court IA Part 11
Justice Madden
THE PARTIES orally agreed to establish a joint venture to purchase foreclosed property for resale. They agreed to equally divide profits and losses. They subsequently signed a document that bore a partially handwritten provision professing agreement to equally share ownership of certain corporate real property assets after payment of defendant’s income and expenses. Plaintiff opposed defendant’s motion to dismiss the complaint-which sought a declaration of the joint venture -claiming that no agreement for a joint venture existed and that any oral agreement would be barred by the Statute of Frauds. The court dismissed plaintiff’s claims for fraud and conversion only.Citing Barash v. Estate of Sperlin, it held that an oral joint venture dealing in real property is not rendered void by the Statue of Frauds because the interest of each joint venturer is deemed to be personalty. The court also ruled that the parties’ written agreement did not supersede any separate oral agreement for a joint venture.
6/10/2004 NYLJ 17, (col. 1)