On March 15, 2022, the First Department issued a decision in Picken v. RN Realty LLC, 2022 NY Slip Op. 01749, holding that a seller may owe a commission to a broker if seller interfered with transaction when it was plainly and evidently approaching success, explaining:
The motion court correctly concluded that a trial is necessary to determine the question of whether defendant seller thwarted the natural progress of negotiations with plaintiff brokers in order to avoid paying plaintiffs a brokerage commission. Although defendant established prima facie that there had been no meeting of the minds with plaintiffs’ prospective purchaser, the record reflects extensive work performed by plaintiffs, in addition to defendant’s counsel’s statement that “we’re going to have a deal,” which raises a question of fact as to whether the transaction was plainly and evidently approaching success. In such circumstances, the trier of fact must determine whether defendant thwarted the transaction’s natural progress in order to avoid paying plaintiffs their commission by shopping the same deal to another party.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).