Noam Besdin Secures Dismissal for Client in Multi-million Dollar Lien Law Case

Three subcontractors filed claims against a prominent solar energy business’s parent company and a number of its project subsidiaries, alleging landlord liability under New York State lien laws. The subcontractors claimed that the projects’ general contractor owed them more than $9 million for unpaid work on solar projects in St. Lawrence, New York, and seeking to recover that amount from our clients, who had hired the general contractor. Stein Adler moved to dismiss all claims against our client’s parent company, arguing that the subcontractors had no basis to pierce the corporate veil and implicate it for the alleged liabilities of its subsidiaries. After extensive briefing and oral argument, the Supreme Court of the State of New York granted our motion to dismiss in its entirety, ruling that the subcontractors’ claims are limited only to those entities with which it has a direct relationship, and confirming the burden that plaintiffs must shoulder in trying to use New York’s lien law to implicate project owners.