On March 14, 2024, the First Department issued a decision in J.S.I.K. Intl. LLC v. Schuster, 2024 NY Slip Op. 01345, holding that an injunction was properly denied because the availability of money damages meant that there was no irreparable harm, explaining:
Supreme Court providently granted in part and denied in part the preliminary injunction sought by plaintiffs. Plaintiffs are investors in a project to develop real property located on Second Avenue in Manhattan into luxury condominiums. Plaintiffs may have demonstrated a probability of success on the merits on their unjust enrichment claim against SD Second Avenue Property LLC (SD Property), the Project Entity which is the operating entity for the construction project. However, they failed to show by clear and convincing evidence a danger of irreparable injury in the absence of an injunction and a balance of equities in their favor.
Plaintiffs seek as damages the specific amount they paid into SD Property and their direct investment in the nonparty former developer (SD Manager), which had an indirect 49.5% ownership interest in the Project Entities. Damages compensable in money and capable of calculation are not irreparable. The exception to this rule, where the monies at issue are identifiable proceeds that are supposed to be held for the party seeking injunctive relief, does not apply here. The proceeds which plaintiffs sought to enjoin are not supposed to be held for the party seeking injunctive relief — in this case, the plaintiffs — but are instead to be distributed to CS Member, which owns a 50.5% interest in the Project Entities and is unrelated to SD Manager. Indeed, these proceeds are not the subject of the action, and an injunction would be incidental to and purely for the purposes of enforcement of the primary relief sought here, a money judgment.
(Internal quotations and citations omitted).