Overview
Yesterday Judge Forrest granted summary judgment in a contract dispute involving the highly litigious Genger family. The opinion begins:
As Tolstoy famously wrote, "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina 1 (Constance Garnett trans., 1978). In the case of the wealthy Genger family, that unhappiness has taken the form of a seemingly never-ending series of lawsuits stemming from the divorce of Arie Genger and Dalia Genger, the family patriarch and matriarch, respectively. Together, Arie, Dalia, their son Sagi, and their daughter Orly have employed a small army of lawyers to fight over the pieces of the family pie and, it seems, to make each other's lives as miserable as possible. This latest installment in the Genger family's litigation saga concerns a straightforward contract dispute between Sagi and Orly. Sagi alleges that he and Orly entered into a tri-party agreement with Dalia, under which Sagi and Orly would receive shares of stock in exchange for providing Dalia with financial support derived from the economic value obtained from that stock. Sagi contends that Orly has breached the agreement, and now seeks damages from her. Orly, for her part, denies the agreement's validity and enforceability, primarily because she claims she never actually received the promised shares of stock, which means that the agreement is not supported by consideration. But, as it turns out, Orly has effectively monetized an interest in the very shares she claims not to have received to the tune of $32.3 million. Orly contends that this case is "an attempt to push the camel's nose under the tent flaps," and that Sagi and Dalia "hope to create a pipeline allowing them to siphon money from Orly for the rest of her life." (ECF No. 92 at 1.) The Court sees things differently: this case is a simple breach of contract action. Nothing more, nothing less. Because there is no triable issue as to whether there was a valid and enforceable agreement supported by consideration, and for the reasons that follow, the Court GRANTS Sagi's motion for summary judgment . . . .
