ADELAIDE PRODUCTIONS INC v. BKN INTERNATIONAL AG (2008)

Order and judgment (one paper), Supreme Court, New York County (Richard B. Lowe III, J.), entered January 30, 2008, which granted petitioners' motion to confirm a Special Referee's report, denied respondent's cross motion to reject the report, and awarded petitioners the principal sum of $2,265,588 (€1,545,000), unanimously affirmed, with costs.

In a prior decision (39 A.D.3d 254, 833 N.Y.S.2d 450), we reversed the grant of a money judgment and referred the matter for a fact-finding hearing.   Respondent never objected during that hearing, nor in its post-hearing submissions, to the Special Referee's ruling that it bore the burden of proof.   Accordingly, that point has not been preserved for appellate review (see Matter of Bowes v. Dennison, 20 A.D.3d 845, 846, 800 N.Y.S.2d 459 [2005];  Isaacson v. Karpe, 84 A.D.2d 868, 869, 445 N.Y.S.2d 37 [1981]).

With respect to the report, the Referee clearly defined the issues and resolved matters of credibility, and the ample support of those findings in the record warranted confirmance (Nager v. Panadis, 238 A.D.2d 135, 655 N.Y.S.2d 946 [1997] ).

We have considered respondent's remaining contentions and find them without merit.