Opinion ID: 781725
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Sponsor's percentage of ownership

Text: 13 Both parties agree that the Sponsor now owns less than 25% of the units on the property. However, the date on which the Sponsor's ownership percentage dropped below 25%—and consequently the timeliness of the Cooperative's July 19, 2000, attempt to terminate the lease—depends on the choice of a numerator and denominator. Using the 137 units described in the offering plan as a denominator and attributing neither the Iwanczuk nor the Lomanto unit to the Sponsor in the numerator, the Sponsor first owned 25% or less of the units in the cooperative on October 16, 1997. However, if the number of combined units rather than the number of original units is the proper denominator, the Cooperative claims that the Sponsor's ownership percentage did not drop to 25% until November 5, 1998, when the Sponsor owned thirty of 130 existing units. If both the Iwanczuk and Lomanto units are added to the numerator attributable to the Sponsor but the number of units existing at the time the cooperative was created is the proper denominator, the Sponsor's ownership percentage also first dipped below 25% on November 5, 1998. Other permutations are possible, but these examples demonstrate the importance of determining the correct denominator and numerator.