Clark, J.
Appeals (1) from an order of the Supreme Court (Gilpatric, J.), entered August 12, 2014 in Ulster County, which denied defendants' motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, and (2) from a judgment of said court, entered December 10, 2014 in Ulster County, upon a verdict rendered in favor of plaintiff.
Plaintiff was hired by defendant Wiley Electronics, LLC (hereinafter the business) as a part-time clerk and was thereafter promoted to vice-president. In 2011, the owner of the business, defendant Brian Wiley, informed plaintiff of a possible sale of the business's assets and requested plaintiff's assistance in closing the sale. According to plaintiff, Wiley promised to pay her compensation over and above her salary if she assisted with the sale — a task that went beyond the scope of her ordinary job duties — and she put substantial time and effort into the closing of the sale in reliance upon that promise.
Plaintiff
Initially, we note that defendants' right to take a direct appeal from the order denying their motion for summary judgment terminated upon entry of the final judgment and, therefore, defendants' appeal from that order must be dismissed (see Matter of Aho, 39 N.Y.2d 241, 248 [1976]). Nevertheless, the issues raised on the appeal from the order denying defendants summary judgment are brought up for review on the appeal from the final judgment (see CPLR 5501 [a] [1]; State of New York v 158th St. & Riverside Dr. Hous. Co., Inc., 100 A.D.3d 1293, 1295 n 2 [2012], lv denied 20 N.Y.3d 858 [2013]).
Defendants also assert that plaintiff's unjust enrichment claim should have been dismissed as a matter of law at the summary judgment stage or upon their motion to set aside the verdict. To prevail on a claim for unjust enrichment, a plaintiff must establish that the defendant was enriched at his or her expense and that "it is against equity and good conscience to permit the defendant to retain what is sought to be recovered" (Paramount Film Distrib. Corp. v State of New York, 30 N.Y.2d 415, 421 [1972], cert denied 414 U.S. 829 [1973]; see Mandarin Trading Ltd. v Wildenstein, 16 N.Y.3d 173, 182 [2011]). "[T]he mere fact that the plaintiff's activities bestowed a benefit on
Here, although plaintiff ultimately bore the burden of proof at trial, defendants, as the proponents of the motion, had the initial burden of establishing their "entitlement to judgment as a matter of law [by] tendering sufficient evidence to eliminate any material issues of fact from the case" (Winegrad v New York Univ. Med. Ctr., 64 N.Y.2d 851, 853 [1985]; see Jacobsen v New York City Health & Hosps. Corp., 22 N.Y.3d 824, 833 [2014]). To that end, defendants proffered, among other things, portions of plaintiff's and Wiley's deposition testimony and correspondence between Wiley and his attorney in which Wiley discussed giving plaintiff an interest-free loan. Plaintiff testified at her deposition that Wiley promised her that she would be "well compensated" for her work related to the sale of the business and that, although Wiley initially referred to their arrangement as a "retention loan," he thereafter referred to it solely as a bonus. Plaintiff stated that she believed that Wiley had abandoned his offer of an interest-free loan. In contrast, Wiley maintained that he had only offered plaintiff an interest-free loan. Given that the evidence defendants produced on the motion revealed a factual dispute as to whether Wiley promised, and plaintiff expected, compensation above and beyond her salary for her role in the sale, defendants failed to demonstrate their entitlement to summary dismissal of plaintiff's unjust enrichment claim and their motion was properly denied in that regard (see Weeks v St. Peter's Hosp., 128 A.D.3d 1159, 1161 [2015]).
We also reject defendants' challenge to that aspect of the jury's verdict relating to plaintiff's unjust enrichment claim as not supported by sufficient evidence or against the weight of the evidence. At trial, plaintiff testified that Wiley promised her additional compensation for helping with the sale, that Wiley proposed an interest-free "retention loan," but then ceased any discussions with respect to such loan and instead promised to pay her "a big bonus" if the sale closed, and that defendants received substantial proceeds from the sale as a result of her efforts. Wiley's attorney testified that Wiley asked
We are also unpersuaded by defendants' contentions that Supreme Court should have dismissed plaintiff's battery claim at the summary judgment stage. To recover for battery, a plaintiff "must prove that there was bodily contact, that the contact was offensive, that is, `wrongful under all the circumstances,' and that [the] defendant intended to make the contact" (Goff v Clarke, 302 A.D.2d 725, 726 [2003], quoting Zgraggen v Wilsey, 200 A.D.2d 818, 819 [1994]; see Cicci v Chemung County, 122 A.D.3d 1181, 1183 [2014], lv dismissed and denied 25 N.Y.3d 1062 [2015]). The plaintiff is required to show that the defendant intended to make the contact, not that he or she "`intended to cause injury as a result of the intended contact'" (Messina v Alan Matarasso, M.D., F.A.C.S., P.C., 284 A.D.2d 32, 35 [2001], quoting Zgraggen v Wilsey, 200 AD2d at 819). Defendants' submissions on their motion for summary judgment clearly established the existence of a factual dispute as to whether Wiley made offensive contact with plaintiff's person. Accordingly, as defendants failed to make a prima facie showing of entitlement to summary judgment, Supreme Court properly denied defendants' motion for summary dismissal of plaintiff's battery claim (see Alvarez v Prospect Hosp., 68 N.Y.2d 320, 324 [1986]).
As for defendants' challenge to the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the jury's determination of liability and damages on plaintiff's battery claim, defendants failed to preserve their challenge for our review when they moved for judgment as a matter of law or to set aside the verdict (see Harden v Faulk, 111 A.D.3d 1380, 1380-1381 [2013], lv denied 23 N.Y.3d 907 [2014]; Tomaszewski v Seewaldt, 11 A.D.3d 995, 995 [2004]; see also Miller v Miller, 68 N.Y.2d 871, 873 [1986]). Further, contrary to defendants' assertions, the award of $64,000 in compensatory damages on the battery claim did not deviate
Defendants' remaining arguments, to the extent that they have not been addressed, are either unpreserved or lacking in merit.
Ordered that the appeal from the order entered August 12, 2014 is dismissed, with costs. Ordered that the judgment entered December 10, 2014 is affirmed, with costs.