| Savannah T & T Co., Inc. v Force One Express Inc. |
| 2009 NY Slip Op 00012 [58 AD3d 409] |
| January 6, 2009 |
| Appellate Division, First Department |
| Savannah T & T Co., Inc., et al., Respondents, v ForceOne Express Inc. et al., Appellants. |
—[*1] Apaamoore Agambila, New York, for respondents.
Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (John E.H. Stackhouse, J.), entered July 17,2007, after a nonjury trial, awarding plaintiffs the principal sum of $40,000, unanimouslyaffirmed, with costs.
Plaintiffs, who are importers of food from Ghana, demonstrated at trial that defendantsmisappropriated a container of yams that they were obligated to deliver to plaintiffs' place ofbusiness. Defendants claimed they had a lien on the container and its contents. However, theagreement holding plaintiffs accountable for an unrelated container car that allegedly had beenstolen from a third party, on which the purported lien was premised, was drafted by defendantsand signed by Edwin Balidin, the corporate plaintiff's principal, under duress, i.e., becausedefendants refused to release his perishable goods otherwise. Moreover, plaintiffs neither boreresponsibility for the theft of the container car nor had an equitable interest in the third partysuch as would warrant holding them liable for reimbursing defendants for its value.
Unrefuted evidence in the form of Balidin's testimony and an invoice from the Africanexporters of the yams established that the wholesale value of the misappropriated yams was$40,000.
Defendant Phil Notaro, the corporate defendant's principal, was properly held personallyliable for wrongfully withholding plaintiffs' goods from them and for coercing Balidin into [*2]signing the purported lien agreement, regardless of whether thecorporate veil was pierced (see American Express Travel Related Servs. Co. v North Atl.Resources, 261 AD2d 310, 311 [1999]). Concur—Lippman, P.J., Mazzarelli, Sweeny,DeGrasse and Freedman, JJ.