Timothy P. McKeown

Some recent matters Tim has handled include:

• Employee of client company abruptly resigned following the company’s implementation of company-wide temporary salary reductions in response to the threat posed to the company’s business by the COVID-19 pandemic and ensuing lockdowns. Simultaneously, the employee demanded severance pay and immediate redemption of the employee’s shares under the company’s shareholder’s agreement and stock plan. The company rejected the employee’s demand. The employee then sued the company for severance pay and redemption of the employee’s shares alleging ERISA violations and a breach of the agreement and stock plan. Following the completion of discovery, Tim moved for summary judgment arguing that the agreements were not ERISA plans and that the company’s decisions were authorized by the express terms of the agreement and plan. The trial court agreed and dismissed the employee’s complaint with prejudice. The employee appealed and the Appellate Division affirmed the trial court. The employee then filed a Petition for Certification to the New Jersey Supreme Court which Tim also opposed and which the Supreme Court denied.
• Tim defended a client in a “quiet title” action in which the plaintiff sought to deprive Tim’s client of a rightful share in certain residential real estate. Unbeknownst to Tim’s client, Plaintiff had taken title to the property in 1988. Plaintiff did so without ordering a title search and thus remained unaware of the actual state of title at that time. Subsequently, in 2019, Plaintiff tried to sell the property. As a result of the buyer’s title search Plaintiff learned that scores of individuals who were heirs of a prior owner also had an interest in the property including Tim’s client. Plaintiff sued asking the court to declare Plaintiff the sole owner of the Property on grounds of “adverse possession.” Except for Tim’s client, all the other defendants either failed to appear or expressly waived their rights in the property. Tim persuaded the court by way of a thorough analysis of the law of adverse possession to not only dismiss Plaintiff’s complaint but to award his client one half of the net proceeds of the sale of the property as demanded by Tim in the counterclaim he filed on behalf of his client.
• Successfully defended Tenant manufacturer, supplier, and marketer of herbal extracts and specialty fine chemicals in claims by Landlord for breach of contract and diminution of value of leased premises.
• Successfully defended Tenant Corian manufacturer in breach of contract claims brought by Landlord as to condition of premises upon surrender.
• Successfully defended major refiner, transporter, and marketer of transportation fuels in New Jersey Spill Act claim in which client subleased equipment and premises to alleged polluter.
• Represented restaurant owner in business dispute negotiating a buyout of client partner, negotiated commercial lease of restaurant premises.
• Successfully represented national hotel chain as landlord in summary dispossess and breach of contract actions against Tenant nightclub.
• Successfully defended commercial tenant and guarantors by reducing landlord’s claim at trial from approximately $300,000 to $11,500.