Pawn Shop LLC v Esterman, 2014 NY Slip Op 03208 [117 AD3d 446]

May 6, 2014

Appellate Division, First Department

[*1]

Pawn Shop LLC et al., Respondents,

v

Gary Esterman, Defendant, and Modell Financial Inc., Doing Business as Modell’s, Appellant.

Law Office of Mitchell J. Devack, PLLC, East Meadow (Nicholas P. Otis of counsel), for appellant.

Friedlander Laifer and Robbins, New York (Spencer B. Robbins of counsel), for respondents.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (George J. Silver, J.), entered August 20, 2013, which, to the extent appealed from, denied the motion by defendant Modell Financial Inc., doing business as Modell’s, for summary judgment dismissing the complaint as against it, unanimously affirmed, with costs.

Modell’s showed that it complied with General Business Law article 5 and that it paid a collateral loan to defendant Esterman, thereby establishing prima facie that it obtained possession lawfully of jewelry that plaintiffs claim Esterman stole from them. However, plaintiff Krutoyarsky’s affidavits, though sparse, raise the inference that the collateral identified on the pawn ticket is the jewelry stolen from plaintiffs by Esterman ( see Solomon R. Guggenheim Found. v Lubell , 77 NY2d 311, 317 [1991]). Concur—Gonzalez, P.J., Mazzarelli, Sweeny, Manzanet-Daniels and Clark, JJ..