Appeals court hears dispute over personal guarantee after lease 'scrivener's error'

An appellate panel heard oral argument over whether a personal guarantee signed by Daniel Kanter covers the obligations of Neurosport after a drafting error in a lease and guarantee documents. Attorney Levinthal, counsel for the appellant, argued that Kanter never intended to guarantee Neurosport’s debts and that there was no meeting of the minds; James Ronan, counsel for appellee Essex Sports Center LLC, urged the court to defer to the trial judge’s findings that Kanter knowingly signed the documents and was not credible. The case was submitted to the panel after argument.

The dispute centers on a set of contemporaneous documents executed in mid-2019 for rental space at a facility in Middleton, Massachusetts. Levinthal told the panel that negotiations began for a tenant identified to the landlord as HPN Concussion Management and that, after HPN was involuntarily dissolved in June 2019, the parties agreed to use the name Neurosport for operations in Florida. Levinthal…