M. Reza Djavaheri Saatchi v Zarin Moghadam

Saatchi v Moghadam 2006 NY Slip Op 04824 [30 AD3d 501] Decided on June 13, 2006 Appellate Division, Second Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided on June 13, 2006
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORKAPPELLATE DIVISION : SECOND JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT
HOWARD MILLER, J.P.
ROBERT W. SCHMIDT
WILLIAM F. MASTRO
ROBERT J. LUNN, JJ.
2005-02346 DECISION & ORDER

[*1]M. Reza Djavaheri Saatchi, et al., plaintiffs, Djavaheri Realty Corp., respondent,

v

Zarin Moghadam, appellant. (Index No. 18530/02)




Howard R. Birnbach, Great Neck, N.Y., for appellant.
Gerald A. Garber, Great Neck, N.Y., for respondent.

In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for conversion, the defendant appeals from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Woodward, J.), dated February 24, 2005, which, upon a jury verdict, and upon the denial of that branch of his motion pursuant to CPLR 4404(a) which was to set aside the verdict and dismiss the complaint, is in favor of the plaintiff Djavaheri Realty Corp., and against him in the sum of $91,046.25.

ORDERED that the judgment is reversed, on the law, with costs, that branch of the motion pursuant to CPLR 4404(a) which was to set aside the verdict and dismiss the complaint is granted, and the complaint is dismissed.

Granting the plaintiff every favorable inference from the evidence submitted, there was no rational basis upon which a jury could have found that the defendant was not authorized to possess the money at issue, that the plaintiff demanded the return of the money, or that the defendant refused to return it (see Yanuck v Medlyn Assoc., 277 AD2d 223, 224; Matter of White v City of Mount Vernon, 221 AD2d 345, 346).

Accordingly, that branch of the defendant's motion pursuant to CPLR 4404(a) which was to set aside the verdict and dismiss the complaint should have been granted. [*2]
MILLER, J.P., SCHMIDT, MASTRO and LUNN, JJ., concur.

ENTER:

James Edward Pelzer

Clerk of the Court