Leni Cummins, a member of Cozen O’Connor’s Real Estate practice group, discusses a decision by the New York State Supreme Court in which the judge found a condominium board can hold the individual principals of a developer LLC personally liable under theories of breach of contract and breach of warranty. Leni and Tamar Wise, a member of Cozen O’Connor’s Commercial Litigation practice group, represented Modern 23 condominium’s board of managers against the developer entity and its members in a case against the developer entity that was discussed in the Commercial Observer and The Real Deal. The condominium board sued the developers for “willful and fraudulent failure to construct the Modern 23,” which involved an extensive list of defects that required and continue to require corrections. Leni said that, “Even though it’s Supreme Court, it’s certainly precedent setting in Manhattan in that now from the sponsor perspective, sponsors should take heed and make sure they maintain their corporate formalities to protect from a veil piercing argument and boards with claims against their sponsors may have recourse against the individual principals.” According to Leni “This is important because very often the sponsor entities are devoid of assets so this allows recourse for the boards and unit owners.”