A state Supreme Court jury in White Plains on Wednesday found Westchester County businessman Sammy Eljamal liable for $4.75 million in damages to an employee of a company owning numerous Shell gas stations in the region whose owners two years ago ousted Eljamal as a managing partner in the course of a bitter legal and personal dispute.
In a 12-day trial, the jury awarded Brent Coscia, general manager at New York Fuel Distributors L.L.C. in White Plains, $3.25 million in compensatory damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages against Eljamal. 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 the 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, a Purchase resident, filed a false criminal complaint against him with Harrison police in 2011 and 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 one of its majority owners, Silverman Realty Group chairman Leon Silverman, as relations deteriorated between Eljamal, a minority owner in the comnpany, and his business partners and employee.
A Harrison town judge found Coscia not guilty of the misdemeanor charge 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.”
Eljamal could not immediately be reached for comment.
