THE DOCKET / REFUSAL TO PRODUCE BOOKS AND RECORDS
What the board is said to have done
Declined a shareholder's demand to inspect the cooperative's books and records while a holdover proceeding against her was already pending.
No tribunal ever decided this.
Cushing v. Sanford Equities Corp. · 2024 NY Slip Op 00405 (2d Dept 2024) · Sup Ct Queens County · Index 714585/2021
No court has decided whether this conduct occurred. This decision resolved a procedural question. Nothing here is a finding that anyone did anything.
Outcome
Board prevailed
Filed
2021-06-25
Last decision
2024-01-31
Elapsed
2.6 yrs
Brought by
unit owner
Posture
interlocutory appeal
What the court held
A shareholder seeking inspection under Business Corporation Law s 624 must satisfy the requirements of s 624(b); failing to do so, the request is properly denied without reaching whether the records should be produced. A preliminary injunction staying a related holdover proceeding was likewise denied for failure to show likelihood of success.
“The Supreme Court also properly denied that branch of the plaintiffs' motion which was to inspect the cooperative's books and records, as the plaintiffs failed to satisfy the requirements of Business Corporation Law s 624(b)”
2024 NY Slip Op 00405 at *2
Outcome in full
The cooperative prevailed, with costs. Denial of a preliminary injunction staying the holdover proceeding affirmed, and denial of BCL s 624 inspection affirmed for failure to satisfy s 624(b). The merits of the inspection demand were never reached.
What it cost
Not disclosed. No decision in this case states a figure, and we publish no estimate. Why costs are mostly blank.
What would have prevented this
The shareholders appeared PRO SE and lost on the statute's own prerequisites -- the five-day written demand and purpose affidavit of BCL s 624(b)-(c) -- rather than on whether they were entitled to the records. A records right that requires counsel to invoke correctly is not a right most owners actually have. Florida's equivalent runs on a written request and a 10-working-day clock.
Sources
Read in full and verified 2026-08-04.