PKG Assoc., Inc. v Mile Dev. Corp.
2009 NY Slip Op 01456 [59 AD3d 693]
February 24, 2009
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, April 1, 2009


PKG Associates, Inc., et al., Respondents,
v
Mile Development Corp., Doing Business as Beechwood Organization, et al., Appellants.

[*1] McCarthy Fingar LLP, White Plains, N.Y. (Sondra M. Miller, Dolores Gebhardt, and Dina M. Aversano of counsel), for appellants.

Meltzer, Lippe, Goldstein & Breitstone, LLP, Mineola, N.Y. (Thomas J. McGowan of counsel), for respondents.

In an action to recover a finder's fee in connection with the acquisition of real property, the defendants appeal from a judgment of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (LaMarca, J.), entered November 5, 2007, which, upon a decision of the same court dated October 10, 2007, made after a nonjury trial, is in favor of the plaintiffs and against them in the principal sum of $540,000.

Ordered that the judgment is modified, on the facts, by deleting the provision thereof awarding the plaintiff the principal sum of $540,000 and substituting therefor a provision awarding the plaintiff the principal sum of $360,000; as so modified, the judgment is affirmed, without costs or disbursements, and the matter is remitted to the Supreme Court, Nassau County, for a recalculation of prejudgment interest and the entry of an appropriate amended judgment thereafter.

Upon review of a determination rendered after a nonjury trial, this Court's authority "is as broad as that of the trial court" (Northern Westchester Professional Park Assoc. v Town of Bedford, 60 NY2d 492, 499 [1983]), and this Court may "render the judgment it finds warranted by the facts, taking into account in a close case the fact that the trial judge had the advantage of seeing the witnesses" (id.; see Perfect Crown Vic, Inc. v Douce Hacking Corp., 56 AD3d 448 [2008]). Upon our review of the record, we find that an award of $360,000 is warranted by the facts. Mastro, J.P., Covello, Dickerson and Leventhal, JJ., concur.