Preview
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 03/24/2022 08:52 PM INDEX NO. 657193/2020
NYSCEF DOC. NO. 235 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 03/24/2022
Judith A. Archer
Victoria V. Corder
Sean M. Topping
NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT US LLP
1301 Avenue of the Americas
New York, New York 10019-6022
Tel.: (212) 318-3000
Fax: (212) 318-3400
judith.archer@nortonrosefulbright.com
victoria.corder@nortonrosefulbright.com
sean.topping@nortonrosefulbright.com
Attorneys for Defendants
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK
COUNTY OF NEW YORK
YASEMIN TEKINER,
in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary
and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner
Index No.: 657193/2020
2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as
a holder of equitable interests in a
Motion Sequence #7
shareholder or a member of the Company
Defendants,
AFFIRMATION OF JUDITH A.
ARCHER IN OPPOSITION TO
Plaintiff,
MOTION FOR LEAVE TO RENEW
-against-
BREMEN HOUSE INC., BREMEN HOUSE
TEXAS, INC., GERMAN NEWS COMPANY,
INC., GERMAN NEWS TEXAS, INC., 254-258
W. 35TH ST. LLC, BERRIN TEKINER, GONCA
TEKINER, and BILLUR AKIPEK, in her capacity
as a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011
Descendants Trust,
Defendants.
JUDITH A. ARCHER, an attorney duly admitted to practice law in the Courts of the State
of New York, affirms the following under penalty of perjury:
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1. I am an attorney at the law firm of Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, counsel for
Defendants. I submit this affidavit in opposition to Plaintiff Yasemin Tekiner’s Motion for Leave
to Renew and have personal knowledge of the matters set forth herein.
2. To date, Plaintiff has deposed two individuals: Billur Akipek and non-party
Zeynep Tekiner.
3. Plaintiff’s counsel revealed during Billur Akipek’s deposition that Plaintiff has a
practice of frequently recording phone conversations. After Defendants demanded production of
the recordings, it was disclosed that Plaintiff secretly recorded phone conversations with the
Companies’ attorney and accountant concerning the Extell Sale. Attached hereto as Exhibit A is
a true and correct copy of excerpts from the transcript from the December 8, 2021 deposition of
Billur Akipek.
4. Plaintiff’s counsel Stephen Younger forced Zeynep Tekiner at her deposition to
answer questions concerning (1) her contentious divorce and child custody battle, (2) whether
Berrin had had an affair long ago, and (3) her sisters’ health and mother’s medical diagnoses. As
a result, Zeynep broke down multiple times crying, required several breaks to compose herself
during her deposition, and ultimately stopped the deposition before Defendants’ counsel could
question her. As a result of Mr. Younger’s aggressive questioning, Zeynep said “yes” to many
leading questions, including topics on which she did not have personal knowledge and was pure
speculation. Zeynep’s deposition remains open. Attached hereto as Exhibit B is a true and
correct copy of excerpts from the transcript from the December 22, 2021 deposition of Zeynep
Tekiner.
5. As was disclosed during discovery, Plaintiff has not had any income other than
what she has received from the Companies since at least 2015. Attached hereto as Exhibit C is
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a true and correct copy of an email between Donald Conklin, Sean Topping, and Victoria Corder,
with the subject line “Tekiner v. Bremen, outstanding document discovery,” dated January 19,
2022.
6. Over the course of this lawsuit, Plaintiff has cumulatively retained four different
law firms (Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, Foley Hoag LLP, Mandel Bhandari LLP, and
Parker Ibrahim & Berg) and no less than 10 attorneys to work on her case.
7. On various phone calls, Plaintiff’s former counsel, Mandel Bhandari LLP,
repeatedly assured me that their client, Plaintiff, had ample financial means to see this action
through to trial.
8. The parties have actively engaged in discovery since May 2021, with Defendants
making a total of 17 productions of over 117,000 documents, totaling over 350,000 pages. By
contrast, Plaintiff has produced few responsive documents, but instead improperly dumped
irrelevant documents without attempting to review for responsiveness.
9. Defendants have accommodated Plaintiff’s past discovery requests, including
voluntarily agreeing to review secondary document sources. Plaintiff, however, has repeatedly
failed to comply with her discovery obligations, such as fully reviewing Defendants’ document
productions and insisting on taking more than the 10 depositions allowed per party under the
Commercial Division Rules. Attached hereto as Exhibit D is a true and correct copy of an email
between Evan Mandel and Sean Topping, with the subject line “Tekiner v. Bremen House –
Deposition Notice,” dated December 23, 2021. Attached hereto as Exhibit E is a true and correct
copy of an email between Donald Conklin and Sean Topping, with the subject line “RE: Tekiner
v. Bremen House - 12.22.2021 Z. Tekiner Deposition - Defs & Zeynep Tekiner Confidentiality
Designation,” dated March 10, 2022.
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10. Plaintiff has manufactured discovery disputes out of thin air to increase
Defendants’ discovery costs, and maligned Defendants’ business operations by improperly
copying Defendants’ real estate counsel and real estate brokerage firms on discovery
correspondence that they had no need to see.
11. Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP has never represented Zeynep Tekiner personally,
but continues to represent Berrin, Gonca, Billur, and Zeynep in their roles as officers and directors
of the Companies. Zeynep testified that she was uncomfortable with Norton Rose representing
her during her deposition because she “had [her] own thoughts” on Plaintiff’s claims. (Archer
Ex. B. at 39:14-23) As such, Zeynep retained separate counsel for the purpose of defending her
deposition.
I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.
Dated: New York, New York
March 24, 2022
/s/ Judith A. Archer
Judith A. Archer
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CERTIFICATION
Counsel for Defendants hereby certifies that this document complies with the word count
limit of Commercial Division Rule 17. This affirmation was prepared using Microsoft Word, and
the total number of words in this affirmation, exclusive of the caption, table of contents, table of
authorities, and signature block is less than 7,000 words.
Dated: March 24, 2022 By: /s/ Judith A. Archer
New York, New York Judith A. Archer
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Preview
FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 03/24/2022 08:52 PM INDEX NO. 657193/2020 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 235 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 03/24/2022 Judith A. Archer Victoria V. Corder Sean M. Topping NORTON ROSE FULBRIGHT US LLP 1301 Avenue of the Americas New York, New York 10019-6022 Tel.: (212) 318-3000 Fax: (212) 318-3400 judith.archer@nortonrosefulbright.com victoria.corder@nortonrosefulbright.com sean.topping@nortonrosefulbright.com Attorneys for Defendants SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF NEW YORK YASEMIN TEKINER, in her individual capacity, as a beneficiary and a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner Index No.: 657193/2020 2011 Descendants Trust and derivatively as a holder of equitable interests in a Motion Sequence #7 shareholder or a member of the Company Defendants, AFFIRMATION OF JUDITH A. ARCHER IN OPPOSITION TO Plaintiff, MOTION FOR LEAVE TO RENEW -against- BREMEN HOUSE INC., BREMEN HOUSE TEXAS, INC., GERMAN NEWS COMPANY, INC., GERMAN NEWS TEXAS, INC., 254-258 W. 35TH ST. LLC, BERRIN TEKINER, GONCA TEKINER, and BILLUR AKIPEK, in her capacity as a Trustee of The Yasemin Tekiner 2011 Descendants Trust, Defendants. JUDITH A. ARCHER, an attorney duly admitted to practice law in the Courts of the State of New York, affirms the following under penalty of perjury: 1 of 5 FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 03/24/2022 08:52 PM INDEX NO. 657193/2020 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 235 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 03/24/2022 1. I am an attorney at the law firm of Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP, counsel for Defendants. I submit this affidavit in opposition to Plaintiff Yasemin Tekiner’s Motion for Leave to Renew and have personal knowledge of the matters set forth herein. 2. To date, Plaintiff has deposed two individuals: Billur Akipek and non-party Zeynep Tekiner. 3. Plaintiff’s counsel revealed during Billur Akipek’s deposition that Plaintiff has a practice of frequently recording phone conversations. After Defendants demanded production of the recordings, it was disclosed that Plaintiff secretly recorded phone conversations with the Companies’ attorney and accountant concerning the Extell Sale. Attached hereto as Exhibit A is a true and correct copy of excerpts from the transcript from the December 8, 2021 deposition of Billur Akipek. 4. Plaintiff’s counsel Stephen Younger forced Zeynep Tekiner at her deposition to answer questions concerning (1) her contentious divorce and child custody battle, (2) whether Berrin had had an affair long ago, and (3) her sisters’ health and mother’s medical diagnoses. As a result, Zeynep broke down multiple times crying, required several breaks to compose herself during her deposition, and ultimately stopped the deposition before Defendants’ counsel could question her. As a result of Mr. Younger’s aggressive questioning, Zeynep said “yes” to many leading questions, including topics on which she did not have personal knowledge and was pure speculation. Zeynep’s deposition remains open. Attached hereto as Exhibit B is a true and correct copy of excerpts from the transcript from the December 22, 2021 deposition of Zeynep Tekiner. 5. As was disclosed during discovery, Plaintiff has not had any income other than what she has received from the Companies since at least 2015. Attached hereto as Exhibit C is 2 of 5 FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 03/24/2022 08:52 PM INDEX NO. 657193/2020 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 235 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 03/24/2022 a true and correct copy of an email between Donald Conklin, Sean Topping, and Victoria Corder, with the subject line “Tekiner v. Bremen, outstanding document discovery,” dated January 19, 2022. 6. Over the course of this lawsuit, Plaintiff has cumulatively retained four different law firms (Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP, Foley Hoag LLP, Mandel Bhandari LLP, and Parker Ibrahim & Berg) and no less than 10 attorneys to work on her case. 7. On various phone calls, Plaintiff’s former counsel, Mandel Bhandari LLP, repeatedly assured me that their client, Plaintiff, had ample financial means to see this action through to trial. 8. The parties have actively engaged in discovery since May 2021, with Defendants making a total of 17 productions of over 117,000 documents, totaling over 350,000 pages. By contrast, Plaintiff has produced few responsive documents, but instead improperly dumped irrelevant documents without attempting to review for responsiveness. 9. Defendants have accommodated Plaintiff’s past discovery requests, including voluntarily agreeing to review secondary document sources. Plaintiff, however, has repeatedly failed to comply with her discovery obligations, such as fully reviewing Defendants’ document productions and insisting on taking more than the 10 depositions allowed per party under the Commercial Division Rules. Attached hereto as Exhibit D is a true and correct copy of an email between Evan Mandel and Sean Topping, with the subject line “Tekiner v. Bremen House – Deposition Notice,” dated December 23, 2021. Attached hereto as Exhibit E is a true and correct copy of an email between Donald Conklin and Sean Topping, with the subject line “RE: Tekiner v. Bremen House - 12.22.2021 Z. Tekiner Deposition - Defs & Zeynep Tekiner Confidentiality Designation,” dated March 10, 2022. 3 of 5 FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 03/24/2022 08:52 PM INDEX NO. 657193/2020 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 235 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 03/24/2022 10. Plaintiff has manufactured discovery disputes out of thin air to increase Defendants’ discovery costs, and maligned Defendants’ business operations by improperly copying Defendants’ real estate counsel and real estate brokerage firms on discovery correspondence that they had no need to see. 11. Norton Rose Fulbright US LLP has never represented Zeynep Tekiner personally, but continues to represent Berrin, Gonca, Billur, and Zeynep in their roles as officers and directors of the Companies. Zeynep testified that she was uncomfortable with Norton Rose representing her during her deposition because she “had [her] own thoughts” on Plaintiff’s claims. (Archer Ex. B. at 39:14-23) As such, Zeynep retained separate counsel for the purpose of defending her deposition. I declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct. Dated: New York, New York March 24, 2022 /s/ Judith A. Archer Judith A. Archer 4 of 5 FILED: NEW YORK COUNTY CLERK 03/24/2022 08:52 PM INDEX NO. 657193/2020 NYSCEF DOC. NO. 235 RECEIVED NYSCEF: 03/24/2022 CERTIFICATION Counsel for Defendants hereby certifies that this document complies with the word count limit of Commercial Division Rule 17. This affirmation was prepared using Microsoft Word, and the total number of words in this affirmation, exclusive of the caption, table of contents, table of authorities, and signature block is less than 7,000 words. Dated: March 24, 2022 By: /s/ Judith A. Archer New York, New York Judith A. Archer 5 of 5