Bsl Development Corp‪.‬

DECISION & ORDER The defendant Broad Cove, Inc., owns 105 acres of waterfront property in Aquebogue, New York. The defendant Box Tree Corporation is the principal shareholder of Broad Cove, Inc., and the defendant Norman Felske is the sole shareholder of Box Tree Corporation. On March 25, 1981, the defendants agreed to sell the Aquebogue property to the plaintiff for the sum of $2,500,000. Although closing on the contract of sale and a related loan agreement was scheduled for June 2, 1981, the closing did not take place because Felske refused to turn over the stock of Broad Cove, Inc., unless the plaintiff provided him with additional money to cover certain debts. In February 1987 this court concluded that the defendants had breached the subject agreements as a matter of law, and remitted the matter to the Supreme Court, Suffolk County, for a trial on the issue of damages (BSL Dev. Corp. v Broad Cove, 127 A.D.2d 722). Following a non-jury trial, the Supreme Court determined that the actual value of the subject parcel as of June 2, 1981, the scheduled closing date, was $3,000,000, and awarded the plaintiff damages in the principal sum of $500,000, which represented the difference between the contract price and the market value of the Aquebogue property at the time of the breach. The court also awarded the plaintiff attorneys' fees in the sum of $89,327.50. On appeal, the defendants contend that the Supreme Court erred in awarding the plaintiff ""benefit of the bargain"" damages because the plaintiff failed to plead or prove that their breach of the sales contract was willful or in bad faith. We disagree. It is settled law that where a seller acts in bad faith or willfully disregards the contract, the purchaser in a breach of contract action is compensated for loss of bargain by recovering the difference between the value of the property and the contract price, together with the incidental damages which flow from the breach (see, Lotito v Mazzeo, 132 A.D.2d 650, 651; Freidus v Eisenberg, 123 A.D.2d 174, 177, affd 71 N.Y.2d 981; Bailey v Morgan, 95 A.D.2d 883, affd 62 N.Y.2d 844; Mokar Properties Corp. v Hall, 6 A.D.2d 536, 539; see also, 62 NY Jur, Vendor and Purchaser, ? 169). Contrary to the defendants' contention, the record at bar amply demonstrates that they willfully breached the subject contract (see, BSL Development Corp. v Broad Cove, supra), and that a willful breach was clearly alleged in the plaintiff's complaint (see, CPLR 3013).