Rich International Group Corp. v. Soleil Capitale Corp.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Barry R. Ostrager, J.), entered August 23, 2016, which denied defendant’s motion for summary judgment, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

Defendant failed to establish as a matter of law that it issued the agreed-upon letter of credit in the amount of $25 million on which plaintiff could successfully draw, for which plaintiff agreed to pay a fee of $1.25 million. Plaintiff’s acknowledgment that defendant issued a document denominated a letter of credit is not sufficient, in view of the provisions in the document that create a question as to its viability for use by plaintiff, and plaintiff’s inability to obtain a confirmation of the purported letter of credit’s legitimacy. Furthermore, the independence principle does not bar plaintiff’s claim because no one attempted to draw on the letter of credit.

Concur — Friedman, J.P., Richter, Saxe, Moskowitz and Kapnick, JJ.