Milkie v Guzzone (2016 NY Slip Op 06806)
Milkie v Guzzone
2016 NY Slip Op 06806 [143 AD3d 863]
October 19, 2016
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting
Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, December 7, 2016
[*1]
Robert Milkie, Successor in Interest to JCR Fitness,
Inc., Appellant,
v
Mindy Guzzone et al.,
Respondents.
The Schutzer Group, PLLC, New York, NY (Eric P. Schutzer of counsel), for
appellant.
Marc Aronson, Brooklyn, NY, for respondents.
In an action, inter alia, to recover a security deposit, the plaintiff appeals, as limited
by his brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Kings County (Martin, J.),
dated May 15, 2014, as denied that branch of his motion which was for summary
judgment on the fourth cause of action.
Ordered that the order is reversed insofar as appealed from, on the law, with costs,
and that branch of the plaintiff's motion which was for summary judgment on the fourth
cause of action is granted.
In 2007, JCR Fitness, Inc. (hereinafter JCR), entered into a lease for real property
with the defendant Mindy Guzzone for the purpose of opening a fitness center. The
plaintiff, Robert Milkie, was the principal of JCR, and on its behalf, he paid a $20,400
security deposit in connection with the JCR lease. Subsequently, JCR sold its business to
a third party, but had previously assigned its interest in the security deposit to the
plaintiff. The plaintiff demanded the return of the security deposit from Guzzone and
from the defendant 213 Court Realty, LLC, the successor owner of the property. The
defendants refused to return the security deposit, alleging that because the plaintiff owed
rent and other money, they were entitled to retain it.