Garfield v. Elmwood Stores

• Decision Date: 10 January 1952
• Docket Number: No. C--485,C--485
• Parties: GARFIELD et al. v. ELMWOOD STORES, Inc. et al.
• Court: New Jersey Superior Court

Page 513

17 N.J.Super. 513

86 A.2d 308

GARFIELD et al. v. ELMWOOD STORES, Inc. et al.

No. C--485.

Superior Court of New Jersey Chancery Division.

Jan. 10, 1952.

John J. Clancy, Newark, for plaintiffs.

Edward J. Gilhooly, Newark, for defendants (Gilhooly, Yauch & Fagan, Newark, attorneys).

FREUND, J.S.C.

The plaintiffs, real estate brokers, have filed a complaint in 12 counts, the first nine of which allege that the defendant, Elmwood Stores, Inc., a corporation of New Jersey, is indebted to them for commissions by reason of services rendered in the procurement of leases for property about to be constructed by Elmwood Stores, Inc., on Route 4, Broadway, East Paterson, New Jersey and to be known as 'Elmwood Shopping Center.' The tenth and eleventh counts assert a similar claim for commissions against the defendants, E. Robert Coven and Harry Haines. The aggregate claim for commissions amounts to $152,756, for which the plaintiffs claim judgment against the defendant, Elmwood Stores, Inc., on the nine counts against it, and for the identical amount on the claim against the individual defendants on the two counts against them.

The twelfth count seeks a lien for the amount claimed to be due on the lands and premises owned by Elmwood Stores, Inc., and a restraint against the said corporation and the individual defendants, who are officers and directors of the corporation, from conveying title to the premises or encumbering them. The basis for the claim for a lien and a restraint are the following allegations of the twelfth count:

'Plaintiffs are informed and believe that the only asset owned by the defendant, Elmwood Stores, Inc., is the land and the building thereon now in the course of construction which comprises the shopping center for which plaintiffs obtained the tenants set forth in Counts First to Eighth of this complaint. * * *

'Plaintiffs are apprehensive that if the said defendant, Elmwood Stores, Inc., conveys or further encumbers its sole asset that they will be irreparably injured; that the defendants would be unjustly enriched by availing themselves of the fruits of the plaintiffs' labor without paying for the same or making any provision to secure payment to plaintiffs prior to and in preference to the right of any purchaser of the said lands and premises. Plaintiffs allege that if said asset be sold or further encumbered plaintiffs will be deprived and defrauded of their right to look to said corporate asset for a recovery on any judgment which they may obtain in this suit, and that such judgment would, therefore, be worthless, and they request this Court to enjoin the defendants, Harry Haines, E. Robert Coven and Elmwood Stores, Inc., its officers and directors from conveying the said property until this suit has been determined and to further enjoin the said defendants, Harry Haines, E. Robert Coven and Elmwood Stores, Inc., its officers and directors, agents or employees, from doing or committing any act which will further encumber the said lands and premises owned by the defendant, Elmwood Stores, Inc., until the full and complete determination of this cause. * * *'

The plaintiffs have filed a notice of Lis pendens in the office of the clerk of the County of...