Schleger v. Treiber Group LLC

• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division
• Citation: Schleger v. Treiber Group LLC, 303 A.D.2d 335, 757 N.Y.S.2d 271 (N.Y. App. Div. 2003)
• Decision Date: 27 March 2003
• Parties: RANDY SCHLEGER, Respondent,<BR>v.<BR>TREIBER GROUP LLC et al., Appellants.

303 A.D.2d 335

757 N.Y.S.2d 271

RANDY SCHLEGER, Respondent,

v.TREIBER GROUP LLC et al., Appellants.

Decided March 27, 2003.

Concur — Tom, J.P., Mazzarelli, Sullivan, Williams and Gonzalez, JJ.

The trial court erred in holding that the alleged oral contract is not subject to the statute of frauds (General Obligations Law § 5-701 [a] [1]; see Apostolos v R.D.T. Brokerage Corp., 159 AD2d 62, 64-65 [1990]). Nevertheless, we affirm, because defendant's January 31, 1997 letter to plaintiff reasonably implies all the material terms of the alleged oral agreement (see Whitehorn Assoc. v One Ten Brokerage, 264 AD2d 516 [1999]). Defendant's principal testified that just before plaintiff left defendant's employ, the parties met and agreed that the accounts produced by plaintiff would remain with defendant, and that defendant would continue to pay plaintiff his share of the commissions generated by those accounts, as before, provided plaintiff did not interfere with the accounts. Defendant's January 31, 1997 letter, which stated that "[w]e will maintain the current brokerage commission splits providing [you do not divert future revenues to another agency]," memorialized this agreement and satisfied the statute of frauds. The amounts of the commissions are...