Lawyer’s Communication Did Not Make “Time of the Essence.”

The Second Department held that the letter from the buyer’s attorney to the seller’s attorney stating that the buyer was prepared to close “on any date … within the next ten days,” and that the buyer would make himself available “at any time and location so designated by you,” and requested that the seller’s attorney “contact me within the next ten days to schedule a closing” did not make “time of the essence” because “it did not clearly and distinctly set a new date and time for closing, and it did not inform the defendant that he would be considered in default if he did not perform by a given date…”. Latora v Ferreira, 2011-09673, Index No. 20462/05 Second Dept. 1-23-13