PITTSBURGH – On June 24, a New York-based diamond company and its owner moved to dismiss a lawsuit launched by a resident of Allison Park alleging the company kept part of a cache of diamonds consigned for sale on his behalf.
On May 3, Thomas Fabiszewski filed suit in the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County against New York-based Pegasus Diamonds LLC and its owner Guy Tadmor, a resident of New Jersey, to recover diamonds Fabiszewski allegedly consigned to the company to sell on his behalf.
The defendants called for the case’s dismissal, citing questions of fact and lack of personal jurisdiction concerning Pegasus and Tadmor and claiming Allegheny County is an improper venue for trial. The defendants also seek to dismiss Fabiszewski’s demand for attorneys fees.
Fabiszewski claims that in November 2014 he entered into an oral contract in which Tadmor agreed to sell a cache consisting of 55 loose diamonds and 44 pairs of diamond earrings, worth a total of $299,084, on his behalf.
Fabiszewski alleges he sent the cache to Pegasus in six separate shipments between November 2014 and February 2015, under the agreement that the defendants would pay him within 30 days of selling any part of the cache and would return any unsold remainder by June 1, 2015, and forfeit a 5 percent annual penalty based on the value of any diamonds remaining in the company’s possession.
Fabiszewski claims that one of the first two checks sent to him by Pegasus in February 2015 bounced due to insufficient funds. Since then, he alleges that the defendants have paid him $60,000 for the portion of the cache sold on his behalf and returned a portion worth $112,546.75, leaving a balance of $126,537.25 still due and owing.
He claims that “despite repeated demands” the defendants have refused to pay for or return the remainder of the cache, and have ignored the 5 percent penalties levied on March 1, 2016, and March 1, 2017, based on the value of the remainder allegedly still in the company’s possession. Fabiszewski launched a civil suit on May 3 to recover the value of the remainder of the cache, “plus interest, costs, and all of [Fabiszewski’s] out-of-pocket expenses including attorney’s fees.”
On June 23, Pegasus and Tadmor answered by calling for a dismissal of the suit, arguing that neither lived in Pennsylvania, had employees there, or regularly conducted business in the state, and therefore did “not have the minimum contacts” required to allow Pennsylvania jurisdiction.
They also objected to the venue for the case, since each denied entering into an oral contract in Allegheny County, and sought to have Fabiszewski’s request for attorney’s fees stricken from the complaint, arguing that Fabiszewski’s “general, vague allegation regarding the payment of costs is insufficient to require the payment of cost or attorney’s fees.”