LORRAINE STEVENS BURNUS MCKNIGHT DARRELL TEASLEY BERNARD HEYWARD MARY COLLINS ANDRE RICHARDSON 540 WEST 146TH STREET HOUSING DEVELOPMENT FUND CORPORATION v. BIANCA BAPTISTE THOMAS BYRUM CARMEN FERNANDEZ MICHAEL HOWELL MARTIN ROSAMILA LESLIE BAPTISTE URBAN MANAGEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT (2026)

This action arises from a dispute about the composition of a Housing Development Fund Corporation's (HDFC) board of directors. Plaintiffs Henry Rincon, Lorraine Stevens, Burnus McKnight, Darrell Teaseley, the estate of Bernard Heyward, Mary E. Collins, and Andre Richardson, move under CPLR 2221 (d) to reargue this court's decision dismissing their claim for a mandatory injunction compelling defendants to turn over the HDFC's documents and property to plaintiffs (mot seq 001). Alternatively, plaintiffs seek to amend their complaint.¹ The motion is denied.

Under CPLR 2221 (d), a court may grant "reargument upon a showing that it had overlooked or misapprehended the facts or law or for some reason mistakenly arrived at its earlier decision" (Mendez v Queens Plumbing Supply, Inc., 39 AD3d 260, 260 [1st Dept 2007] [internal quotation marks omitted].)

On motion sequence 001, this court held that an attempted coop-shareholder vote convened to alter the composition of the HDGC's board of directors was invalid. (See Rincon v Allen, 2025 Slip Op 52014(U), *2 (Sup Ct, NY County 2025].) This court held that fewer than 14 shareholders (as required to constitute a quorum) were present at the meeting and therefore that no new board was elected. (See id.) In particular, this court found that Mary Collins—who appeared at the meeting by proxy—could not be counted toward the quorum. Collins represented that she was the fiduciary of deceased shareholder Irene Chisolm's estate. (See id.) But this court could not credit that conclusory representation absent documentation of her fiduciary status unless corroborated by documentation or a CPLR 2106-compliant affidavit. (See id.)

Plaintiffs now argue that this court applied the wrong standard in analyzing defendants' motion to dismiss "because there are questions of fact." (NYSCEF No.219 at 5.) Plaintiffs say that Collins's statement that she was the fiduciary of Chisolm's estate raises an issue of fact about whether a quorum was present. (Id. at ¶ 29.) Plaintiffs further argue that this court made "made improper findings of fact and credibility determinations" about Collins. (NYSCEF 230 at 4.)

This court disagrees with plaintiffs. In considering a CPLR 3211 (a) (7) motion, "a court may freely consider affidavits submitted by the plaintiff to remedy any defects in the complaint and the criterion is whether the proponent of the pleading has a cause of action, not whether he has stated one." (Leon v Martinez, 84 NY2d 83, 88 [1994] [internal citation and quotation marks omitted].)

Defendants moved, in part, under CPLR 3211 (a) (7) to dismiss plaintiffs' mandatory-injunction claim. In opposing the motion, plaintiffs submitted evidence: Collins's affidavit, as relevant here. The court was therefore entitled to take into account the statements within Collins's affidavit in determining whether plaintiffs have a cause of action. This court did so and found that the affidavit did not assuage concerns about whether a quorum was present because of Collins's unsupported representation that she was the estate's fiduciary, and therefore, a coop shareholder.² The court is thus unpersuaded that it overlooked an issue of fact or law warranting reargument.³

Accordingly, it is

ORDERED that plaintiffs' motion to reargue is denied.

DATE 3/2/2026

FOOTNOTES

1.   Plaintiff neither provides a proposed amended complaint nor explain how they would change their current complaint.

2.   Nor have plaintiffs provided on this motion a new detailed affidavit from Ms. Collins or documentation about her fiduciary status.

3.   The parties also dispute whether plaintiff Andre Richardson counts as a shareholder for purposes of constituting a quorum. But this court did not reach this question on the prior motion. (See Rincon, 2025 Slip Op 52014(U), *2 n 1.) Nor does it do so now.

Gerald Lebovits, J.