New York City Business Litigation Attorney

Richard Pu, P.C.

120 E. 90th Street Suite 10C New York, New York 10128 USA

 (212) 427-3665
 (212) 427-6057

www.newyorklitigator.com
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Richard Pu, P.C. is a dedicated law firm in New York City. Attorney Richard Pu conducts business litigation in the federal courts of New York City. Educated at Harvard, Mr. Pu has strong academic credentials as well as solid work experience. Because of his years with a large New York City firm, Mr. Pu can deliver a large firm product at a small firm's price. And, with more than 30 years of experience, Mr. Pu is familiar with virtually every business context that gives rise to litigation.

Mr. Pu spent several years representing banks and Fortune 500 companies at a large Wall Street firm. Now, as a solo practitioner, he is able to deliver a large firm work product at a small firm's price. The areas in which he practices include: Breach of contract; Fraud; Breach of fiduciary duty; Securities fraud; Lender liability; Defamation; Interpleader claims; Debtor/creditor disputes; Racketeering; Civil forfeitures; Wire transfers; Bills and notes; Letters of credit; Customer-broker claims; International commerce.

Practice Areas

Additional Practice Areas: Breach of Contract; Banking Litigation; Breach of Fiduciary Duty; Lender Liability; Partnership Disputes; International Litigation; Collections; Tortious Interference With Contract; Conversion; Equitable Remedies; Provisional Remedies; Deceptive Business Practices; Sale of Goods

Practice Areas Description

Our practice includes:

- Breach of Contract

When you enter into a business relationship, both sides make promises which constitute an enforceable contract. Breach of the contract can have devastating results for the injured party. It's always desirable for the parties to settle the dispute themselves, but sometimes litigation is unavoidable. Breach-of-contract litigation is one of the core areas of the Firm's practice. For example, he has been extensively involved litigating seller-buyer disputes, partnership disputes, international litigation, franchisor-franchisee disputes, collections, lender liability actions, and banking litigation.

- Fraud

Frequently, people who enter contracts were induced to do so by a misstatement of fact. For example, the seller of a business may lie about the profits he's been making to induce the buyer to buy the business. That kind of fraud provides an affirmative claim-- i.e., a claim by the victim to recover money. It can also provide a defense, such as when the seller of the business sues to recover payment for the business. A failure to state an important fact-- i.e., an omission-- will support a claim of fraud. Thus, for example, if the seller of a business fails to disclose a big law suit against the business, that may be an omission that will support a claim of fraud.

- Breach of Fiduciary Duty

Some relationships are so close and trusting that the law imposes special obligations on the person who is being trusted, called a fiduciary. Such relationships include the relationship that a lawyer has with his client, a director of a corporation has with the shareholders, partners have with each other, an agent has with his principal, and an accountant has with his customer. One of the benefits of being able to allege a breach of fiduciary duty is that doing so entitles the plaintiff to seek punitive damages. Unlike compensatory damages, which seek to compensate, punitive damages are meant to punish and deter recurrence, and are therefore not limited to the amount of the plaintiff's loss. Thus, a claim of punitive damages enables a plaintiff to increase the size of his claim, and have a significant bargaining chip in dealing with the defendant.

- Lender Liability

Sometimes borrowers have disputes with banks and other lenders over misconduct by the lender. For example, if the lender acts in bad faith to advance its own interests at the expense of the borrower, that may give rise to a lender liability dispute. During the 1980s, a body of law, called lender liability law, developed that gives special protections to borrowers injured by banks and other lenders. The case law gives the borrower both an affirmative claim against the lender, as well as a defense to actions by the borrower to compel repayment of the loan. The innovation introduced by the new law was the concept that every contract had an implied covenant of good faith. Thus, even if the bank was entitled by the contract to behave in a particular way, it can't behave in that way if acting in bad faith.

- Racketeering

A popular tool of business litigators is the federal racketeering law ("RICO"), 18 U.S.C. § 1961 et seq. RICO was originally passed to permit recovery for the activities of organized crime, but Congress drafted it sufficiently broadly to apply to many business disputes. Federal judges are hostile to RICO claims because RICO permits plaintiffs relatively mundane pieces of business litigation to bring their actions in federal court. But plaintiffs love RICO because it permits recovery of three times the actual loss, and the recovery of attorney’s fee. But it's one of the most intellectually difficult claims to make.

- Partnership Disputes

Sometimes partners get into a dispute with each other. There is an entity called a partnership, such as a law partnership, or a real estate investment vehicle. But many relationships that are not technically partnerships are partnerships in a broader sense of that word. People who invest in a corporation are in effect partners, even though technically they are fellow shareholders. Similarly a licensor and licensee, who have a revenue sharing formula are partners. Similarly, people in a joint venture are treated by the law as though they are partners.

- International Litigation

Many business transactions now involve the movement of money or goods over international borders. For example, the manufacturer of garments in China may deliver defective goods. Or something may go wrong with a large wire transfer to a recipient overseas. This kind of dispute raises unique problems having to do with treaties, international law, and the laws of foreign countries. For example, one problem is that serving an overseas defendants must be accomplished pursuant an international treaty called the Hague Convention. It requires that the document be translated into the overseas language and be presented to the foreign government, which then serves the defendant. The process may take as long as six months. Fortunately, there are commercial outfits that undertake to effect service pursuant to the Hague Convention, even though they may charge over a thousand dollars.

- Franchisor-Franchisee

The New York Franchise Sales Act. The New York Franchise Sales Act (the "NYFSA") is based on Rule 10b-5 of the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is the basis for most securities fraud claims. Like Rule 10b-5, the NYFSA prohibits fraud in the sale of franchises, and permits the recovery of attorney’s fees. A common fact pattern involves the franchisor telling prospective franchisees that they can expect to earn $X dollars. The law requires that a projection like that have a basis in fact. So of the franchisor merely pulls the number out of the air, its statement may constitute an act of fraud in violation of the NYFSA.

- Collections

Sometimes, there is no dispute about liability. Rather, the problem is finding assets of the person that owes the money, called the judgment debtor, from which a judgment may be satisfied. Lawyers call that kind of law suit a collection action. The first order of duty is to find assets. This may be done by sending a list of questions (called interrogatories) to the debtor, or by requiring him to attend a question and answer session (called a deposition). If the creditor can find a bank account, it's possible to freeze by account by sending the bank a document called a restraining order. If the debtor owns real estate, filing the judgment in the county where the real estate is located causes the judgment to become a lien on the property. That lien can be foreclosed on, in much the same way that a mortgage lender forecloses on its mortgage if the home owner becomes delinquent in repaying the mortgage loan.

- Negligence

Lay people may think of negligence as being a body of law that pertains only to personal injury actions. But it figures in business litigation as well. For example, lawyers, accountants and investment advisors sometimes make mistakes that cause significant harm. In such instances, the injured party is permitted recovery of both his losses. A malpractice claim against a lawyer is often based on simple negligence. Failing to file a law suit before the legal deadline, called a statute of limitation, is a classical form of malpractice. But the lawyer's conduct must be more than simply the selection between two or more reasonable strategies. So if each strategy has advantages and disadvantages, and the lawyer selects one, that's not malpractice.

- Tortious Interference with Contract

When two people have a contract, a third party may try to interfere with the contractual relationship. For example, if a vendor has a contract to supply a customer, a competitor of the vendor may encourage the customer to breach his contract and become a customer of the competitor. Under the right circumstances, the injured vendor may recover the resulting damages. Thus, it's not necessary to allege facts showing that the defendant's conduct was tortious or criminal. By contrast, to allege interference with prospective economic advantage, the plaintiff must allege conduct which is an independent tort or criminal act. The rationale for the difference is that, where there is a contract, there is an interest that the law seeks to protect, so the threshold for bringing a law suit is lower. By contrast, where there is no contract, there is no such interest, and the law sets a higher threshold that must be surmounted.

- Conversion

If someone makes unauthorized use someone else's property, that's called a conversion. For example, if A writes B a check, and C takes the check and deposits it to C's account, B has a claim for conversion. Or if a thief takes the money out of someone's bank account, the account holder has a claim for conversion. Conversion is the unauthorized assumption and exercise of the right of ownership over goods belonging to another to the exclusion of the owner's rights. So the plaintiff must allege facts showing that the goods in question belong to him. That is not necessarily as easy as it sounds. For example, if the wires his money into the defendant's account, as a matter of law, the money belongs to the defendant. Thus, the defendant can do what he wants with it without committing a conversion.

- Equitable Remedies

Sometimes contract law doesn't provide adequate relief. The law has supplemented contract law with principles to alleviate the harsh results of applying only contract law. A common claim for equitable relief is a claim for unjust enrichment. That claim applies where the plaintiff has conferred a benefit on defendant, and defendant can't in good conscience keep the benefit without paying for it. Thus, for example, where a plaintiff performs services for defendant without a contract, he can't seek payment by alleging breach of contract. However, he may be able to recover the reasonable value of his services by alleging unjust enrichment. Note that the recovery is only for the reasonable value. If there had been a contract, the plaintiff could sue for the contract price even if it exceeds the reasonable value of his services. But not so with a claim for unjust enrichment.

- Provisional Remedies

A provisional remedy is a remedy that the court gives a party before trial. It's a problematic concept: the allegations of a plaintiff's complaint are merely allegations. They haven't been proved, and won't be proved until trial, which may be years away. So the idea that the court may grant relief before the trial is antithetical to a fundamental concept of litigation. But it's clear that unless the law permits the granting of provisional remedies, the litigation may be academic. Suppose, for example, that the debtor is about to hide all of his assets. Or that a defendant is about to cut down a grove of trees. Unless he's stopped from doing that right at the outset, there's nothing to be accomplished by continuing the litigation.

- Deceptive Business Practices

New York has a statute barring deceptive business practices that is very favorable to an injured consumer. The statute permits recovery of as much as three times a plaintiff's actual damages. But more importantly, the statute permits the recovery of attorney’s fees. It can't be over emphasized that the economics of the litigation often determines the outcome. So if the plaintiff knows that he has a chance of being reimbursed for his attorneys fees, he can litigate longer and harder. By the same token, the defendant will know that he may have to pay for the plaintiff's attorneys fees. That significantly increases the defendant's exposure, and may tip the scales in favor of the creditor.

- Sale of Goods

A contract over the sale of goods may raise special issues. Such sales are governed by a body of law called the Uniform Commercial Codes (the "UCC"), which prescribes special rules. For example, ordinarily, parties to a contract have six years to commence a law suit. But for a contract over the sale of goods, the UCC requires that an action be brought within four years. A frequent problem faced by the purchaser is the seller's disclaimers liability. For example, the contract of sale will often try to limit the purchaser to a paltry remedy. For example, the manufacturer of a defective part may seek to limit the purchaser to the price of the part, even if the purchaser's business was destroyed by the part malfunctioning.

Attorneys

Mr. Richard Pu Attorney Business Litigation, Contracts, Franchising

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