Clark Hill Solves Philadelphia Commercial Lot Dispute

Stephen Wolf and Andrew Carroll recently won a partnership dispute involving a large commercial lot adjacent to Interstate 95 in Philadelphia.

After several years without a resolution, the plaintiffs brought in Wolf and Carroll to take the case to trial as quickly as possible.

On Aug. 12, the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas issued a judgment granting the plaintiffs’ ejectment claim to secure exclusive possession of the property, awarded monetary damages, and granted the plaintiffs’ claim to pierce the corporate veil of the corporate defendants.

“We got this as a problem case that prior lawyers were unable to solve,” Carroll said. “We jumped in and prioritized the ejectment claim to get this to trial quickly.”

The plaintiffs entered into a partnership with the defendants for the lease of the commercial lot, but issues began to arise in December 2016 when the defendants failed to pay nearly $20,000 to the plaintiffs as required by the agreement. This event, in combination with other factors, led to the plaintiffs terminating their agreement for the commercial lot with the defendants in February 2017.

However, the defendants continued to use and rent out spaces in the lot to park tractor-trailers but failed to pay the plaintiffs rent. With litigation ongoing, and a nearby bridge collapse on I-95, a significant tire fire on the lot resulted in Wolf and Carroll obtaining an injunction on behalf of plaintiffs to mitigate safety concerns at the property.

“The top priority was possession of the property so our clients can actually use it to generate income whereas before they were completely shut out of the property by this holdover tenant and bad partner who wasn’t paying a dime for seven years,” Wolf said.

Altogether, the court granted several counts to the plaintiffs, including declaratory judgment, ejectment, breach of contract, and piercing the corporate veil, and it ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and against the defendant with respect to the defendants’ six counterclaims.

“The client has gone through a lot during this time, and this was a problem weighing over them and their family for nearly a decade,” Wolf said. “It’s great to help them get rid of this problem and lift that weight off their shoulders.”