Judge Tosses 4 Out of 5 Claims by Lawyer Who Alleged His Firm Broke a Pact to Support Him
Norman Sheresky appears undaunted by a Manhattan judge’s decision tossing four out of five of his claims against the law firm that he founded.
Sheresky had claimed in a $26 million suit filed last year that the matrimonial firm then known as Sheresky Aronson Mayefsky & Sloan broke an oral promise to help support him financially in the later years of his career. On Monday, Judge Eileen Bransten allowed just one claim, for breach of fiduciary duty, based on a failure to pay Sheresky an extra bonus in 2009, the New York Law Journal reports.
The bonus claim alleged that, after Sheresky announced he would be less involved in the law practice, the other partners cut distributions but secretly paid themselves extra bonuses.
Bransten dismissed claims relating to allegations that the firm had broken a promise to share lawsuit profits, to pay premiums on his $1 million whole life policy, and to pay off his $1.1 million mortgage. Sheresky had submitted documents that he said could be “pieced together” to support the oral contract. But Bransten said they didn’t satisfy statute of frauds requirements for a writing containing the material terms.
Sheresky put an optimistic spin on the decision (PDF). “Naturally, I like the part I won and I don’t like the part I lost, but I think the part I won will be sufficient,” he told the New York Law Journal. “I think we can prove everything we have to prove on what’s left.”
