On October 31, 2023, the First Department issued a decision in Cicardo Natl., Inc. v. Loeb, 2023 NY Slip Op. 05465, upholding the dismissal of a claim based on an oral contract when there was no corroborating documentary evidence of that contract, explaining:
Defendants established their prima facie entitlement to summary judgment by submitting evidence that the parties never actually entered into a so-called make whole agreement — that is, an alleged oral agreement intended to compensate plaintiff’s principal Jason Cicardo for a reduction in his compensation — that forms the basis of plaintiff’s complaint. In opposition, plaintiff failed to raise an issue of material fact. Plaintiff submitted no corroborating evidence of the purported make whole agreement, instead offering nothing more than Cicardo’s self-serving, internally inconsistent, and uncorroborated testimony that the parties had entered into it. The record contains no emails or other documentary evidence referring to the make whole agreement or its terms; at most, the record shows that plaintiff tried to collect money from defendants under the alleged agreement. Indeed, plaintiff’s counsel conceded at oral argument that there is no evidence memorializing the make whole agreement for the more than seven years that it was supposedly in existence.
(Internal citations omitted).