Bing v. Sun Wei Ass'n, Inc.

• Decision Date: 25 March 1993
• Citation: 191 A.D.2d 361,595 N.Y.S.2d 417
• Parties: Chew Wah BING, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, and Sergio Chiu, et al., Plaintiffs, v. The SUN WEI ASSOCIATION, INC., et al., Defendants-Respondents.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 417

595 N.Y.S.2d 417

191 A.D.2d 361

Chew Wah BING, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants, and Sergio Chiu, et al., Plaintiffs, v. The SUN WEI ASSOCIATION, INC., et al., Defendants-Respondents.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division,

First Department.

March 25, 1993.

Before SULLIVAN, J.P., and MILONAS, ELLERIN and WALLACH, JJ.

MEMORANDUM DECISION.

Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (William J. Davis, Jr., J.), entered February 28, 1992, which awarded a total of $340,000 in compensatory and punitive damages to various defendants against various plaintiffs on a variety of counterclaims, in addition to directing accountings to be made and $96,241.66 in counsel fees to be paid, unanimously modified, on the law and the facts, by striking the punitive damage awards on the first, second and fourth counterclaims, and limiting recovery on the eighth counterclaim to the corporate defendant alone, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.

Plaintiffs are former officers of defendant Sun Wei Association, a fraternal, community-service organization based in Chinatown. The individual defendants took over the leadership of the organization in 1985, with defendant Chiu Pak Hoi as president, and immediately began investigating alleged financial improprieties of their predecessors in office. In order to stave off such investigation, plaintiff Ming distributed and caused to be published certain writings calling into question the character and responsibility required of defendant Hoi to hold office. In 1987 plaintiffs brought this action to remove the individual defendants from office for mismanagement as well as improper and unlawful conduct. After being subjected to a plethora of litigious practices, defendants counterclaimed, alleging abuse of process and malicious prosecution by plaintiffs, as well as defamation by plaintiff Ming, inter alia. When plaintiffs defaulted on the counterclaims, the IAS court awarded interim counsel fees of $10,000 to the counterclaimants, and directed an assessment of damages. At a subsequent inquest, the court found the commencement and process of this lawsuit to have been frivolous and grounded in malice, resulting in enormous legal expenses for defendants. In addition to another $96,241 in counsel fees to defendant Association, the court awarded $10,000 in compensatory damages and $30,000 in punitive damages on the first counterclaim to defendant Hoi against plaintiff Ming for circulating a letter defaming Hoi; awarded $25,000 compensatory damages and $75,000 punitive damages, as between the same two litigants, on the second counterclaim for causing to be published an article defaming Hoi; awarded...