MHH Prevails, Obtaining Summary Judgment For Its Client In The Amount Of Over Four Million Dollars
MHH recently represented and obtained summary judgment for the plaintiff, a San Francisco based financial institution, for sums due and owing under a loan given to Lightbridge Academy, a premium pre-kindergarten day care service (“Lightbridge”) backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration (“SBA”) and guaranteed by two individual defendants. The Honorable Justice Anar R. Patel, A.J.S.C. of the New York County Supreme Court, Commercial Division, held that the firm’s client sufficiently proved that it disbursed $3,332,976.54 to Lightbridge from August 2019 through September 2020, but that Lightbridge defaulted on its October 5, 2023, payment and subsequent installments, entitling the client to take immediate possession of the collateral at issue and recover all amounts due under the SBA loan, including attorneys’ fees and costs.
The defendants’ primary legal defense arose from COVID-19 era factors. Among other claims, the defendants argued that their contractual obligations of repayment were rendered impossible and impractical given the effects of the pandemic, which, if proven, could have entirely excused their default under the SBA loan. Contrary to these claims, however, MHH successfully showed that the failure of the defendants’ business was not the result of factors which rendered performance impossible or impractical as a matter of law, but was, rather, the result of common market fluctuations, such as the sharp rise in remote work, the introduction of the Universal Pre-Kindergarten program by New York State, and their franchisor’s strict adherence to its premium brand standards, all of which combined to keep costs high and enrollment low.
MHH is proud to share this victory with our client and will continue to work toward post-judgment results that bring maximum benefit.
For more information on this win, please see the New York Law Journal, January 6, 2026, p. 17.
