“Knowing” And “Intentional” Defalcation Yields Goliath Punitive Damages Award

This week, drawing inspiration from Peter Mahler’s annual Summer Shorts series of articles, we’ll feature a relatively pithy summary of an impressive post-trial decision from one of the finest judges sitting in our state capital, Albany County Commercial Division Justice Richard Platkin.

Darwish Auto Group, LLC v TD Bank, N.A., made two prior appearances on the blog.

First, Peter Mahler wrote about an injunction decision from Justice Platkin denying a motion by Walid Darwish (“Darwish”), the namesake sole equity owner of a corporation and limited liability company. Darwish’s entities owned ten upstate New York car dealerships. Darwish sought to restore his managerial rights after his removal, mere months after buying the businesses, from the companies’ three-member board of directors and management committee, by the majority non-owner managers appointed by lenders who financed Darwish’s acquisition of the dealerships with a $62 million loan. The impetus for Darwish’s removal was