Westchester County businessman Sammy Eljamal”™s legal troubles stemming from a bitter 3-year-old battle with partners in Shell gas station businesses in the region escalated this month when a White Plains jury found him liable for $4.75 million in damages to an employee whom Eljamal falsely accused of making death threats against him and his family.
The jury”™s damages award, together with attorney”™s fees tacked on by state Supreme Court Justice Lester B. Adler and a $5 million judgment in a separate case related to control of eight Shell gas stations in Connecticut, leaves the 39-year-old Purchase resident on the hook for nearly $10 million.
Those financial blows came soon after a state appellate court in April dismissed slander and libel charges brought by Eljamal against Scarsdale investor James Weil, a majority owner and Eljamal”™s business partner in a $43.3 million deal in 2010 to acquire 88 Shell gas station properties and leases in Westchester, Long Island and New York City. Weil and another majority owner in the Shell businesses, Silverman Realty Group Inc. chairman Leon Silverman, two years ago ousted Eljamal as a managing partner after Eljamal waged an unsuccessful court battle to block his removal.
In a 12-day civil trial, a state Supreme Court jury on May 14 awarded the $4.75 million in damages to Brent Coscia, general manager at New York Fuel Distributors L.L.C. in White Plains. An Eljamal associate, Greene County resident Bryan Orser, was held liable for $225,260 for his roles in the series of incidents that prompted Coscia”™s lawsuit.
A longtime owner and operator of gas stations and convenience stores in Westchester, the lower Hudson Valley and Fairfield County, Conn., Eljamal also supplies gas to numerous stations in the region as the owner of Wholesale Fuels in Thornwood. In 2012, Westchester County officials awarded Eljamal a food concessions contract at Westchester County Airport, where he operates three restaurants, a Dunkin”™ Donuts franchise and the airport terminal newsstand.
The jury sided with Coscia in his claims that Eljamal filed a false criminal complaint against him with Harrison police in 2011 and has engaged in a continuing pattern of “malicious behavior” in an effort to force Coscia out of his job, inflict financial and emotional harm and damage his reputation in the fuel oil industry.
That behavior, according to Coscia and court documents, included a series of “spoofing” incidents in which “inappropriate” messages were sent to Coscia”™s business associates in his name, magazine and porn site subscriptions were ordered without his knowledge and food and flowers supposedly ordered by Coscia were delivered to the New York Fuel Distributors office. “One day we had pizza delivered,” Coscia said after the verdict. “One day we had Chinese food delivered.” Coscia said he has been the victim of spoofing ”“ a technique to disguise the sender of information as someone else ”“ by phone, email and text messages.
Coscia claimed Eljamal used a spoofing service in June 2011 to show Harrison police that he had received a phone call from Coscia, whom he accused of threatening his life and family. Orser claimed to have overheard their phone conversation.
Coscia, a resident of West Haven, Conn., was charged with aggravated harassment. Eljamal obtained a temporary order of protection against him that effectively barred him from entering the company”™s Thornwood office. New York Fuel Distributors moved its operations from Eljamal”™s Thornwood headquarters to a downtown White Plains building owned by Silverman, as relations deteriorated between Eljamal and his business partners and employee.
A Harrison town judge that fall found Coscia not guilty after the defendant produced phone records showing he never made the alleged call to Eljamal. The order of protection was lifted.
At the jury trial, Eljamal and Orser “stuck to their story all the way, and you can see the result,” Coscia said.
Coscia in court documents also described being stalked at work and at home, which left him and his family fearful for their safety. In another incident, his Thornwood office was trashed; the jury in its verdict ordered Orser to pay $250 for personal property damage.
Coscia said he was satisfied with the nearly $5 million damages award. “Considering what these guys did, I think the punishment fits the crime,” he said.
Since the criminal trial in Harrison, Coscia said, he has spent about $100,000 in attorney and expert witness fees and another $5,000 in expenses.
Eljamal”™s false reports in 2011 to an oil industry trade publication and business associates that Coscia had been fired have “definitely had an effect” on his reputation, he said. “I”™ve been the butt of a lot of jokes by people in the industry.”
Coscia”™s attorney in White Plains, Marc S. Oxman, said the damages award “is very high. In my view, it demonstrates that the jury was displeased by Mr. Eljamal”™s conduct.”
“The trial was absolutely remarkable,” Oxman said. “There was a lot of eye-rolling at the trial.” Eljamal, whom Oxman said has had “at least 17 lawyers” in the various lawsuits stemming from his ongoing disputes with his business partners, attempted to change lawyers during the trial. The judge denied his motion. The defendant”™s move “was clearly in my view an attempt to create a mistrial,” Oxman said.
As for collecting the $4.75 million award from Eljamal, “Sammy has business interests,” Oxman said. “He has equity interests in numerous companies and we expect to go after them.”
“I will follow this collection process all the way to the end,” Coscia said. “Eventually I will get paid. I will never let this drop.”
In another state Supreme Court case, Justice James W. Hubert in April awarded $5 million to a Silverman-owned company, Wilton Motiva Associates L.L.C., as landlord to Eljamal-owned companies leasing eight Shell gas stations in Fairfield County. The judge agreed with Silverman”™s claim that Eljamal”™s tenant companies had violated terms of their contract when they failed to make $5 million in installment payments to an escrow account.
Eljamal and his father, Ardsley resident Musa Eljamal, are personally liable for the $5 million award to Silverman”™s company as guarantors of the lease agreement.
Eljamal could not be reached for comment.
