Microsoft has filed suit against JLL in New York County Supreme Court, accusing the real estate services giant of walking away from promises to cover legal costs tied to a forklift accident during the build-out of its Flatiron office space. The tech company filed the complaint on Friday, escalating a dispute that traces back to construction work at its Fifth Avenue office.
According to Microsoft's complaint, as reported by Bisnow, JLL oversaw the build-out of Microsoft's 150,000-square-foot office block at 122 Fifth Ave. and had agreed to indemnify Microsoft against lawsuits stemming from that work, including covering attorney fees and damages. Microsoft also says JLL was supposed to add the company as an insured party under its liability insurance, a policy the complaint values at $10 million.
Microsoft says JLL failed to make good on that promised coverage once a construction worker's injury lawsuit named Microsoft as a defendant. The company's attorneys describe JLL's rejection of its coverage claim as factually incorrect, uninvestigated and not made in good faith, and the complaint accuses JLL of breaching its duty of good faith and fair dealing in connection with its contractual obligations.
The Underlying Injury Claim
At the center of the dispute is a lawsuit filed by a worker named Anyello Frayind, who claims a forklift struck him while he was working at 122 Fifth Ave. in March 2023, leaving him with serious, permanent injuries. Frayind filed suit in Kings County Supreme Court in 2024 and then added Microsoft and the forklift operator to that case in June 2025, according to the same Bisnow report.
Microsoft's attorneys claim that Frayind and the forklift operator were working on Microsoft's space at the time of the accident, which is why the company expected JLL's coverage to kick in. JLL's counsel has pushed back on that framing, claiming instead that the building owner retained the forklift operator's employer and that Frayind was working on a separate project. Neither JLL nor Microsoft immediately responded to requests for comment, per Bisnow's reporting.
A Long-Running Facilities Relationship
JLL's ties to Microsoft predate the Fifth Avenue project by more than a decade. The firm was appointed project manager for properties occupied by Microsoft back in 2012 as part of a facilities management outsourcing deal that Microsoft officially signed with CBRE in 2013, according to Bisnow's account of the complaint.
Microsoft became the anchor tenant at 122 Fifth Ave. in 2023, occupying the landmarked 11-story office building that July after signing a 150,000-square-foot lease in the Flatiron district back in October 2021, as Bloomberg reported at the time. The building itself provides 300,000 square feet of office and retail space, according to CCA Metro.
The Redevelopment Behind the Build-Out
The Bromley Cos. owns 122 Fifth Ave. and redeveloped the building in conjunction with Microsoft's arrival as anchor tenant. Bromley had realized it had an opportunity to redevelop the entire structure, a former Barnes & Noble headquarters in Manhattan's Ladies' Mile historic district, according to Commercial Observer.
Accounts of exactly how much space that redevelopment added differ. Commercial Observer reported the new construction, seamlessly connected to the existing 10-story property, added 35,000 square feet of commercial space, while STUDIOS Architecture, which led the redesign, says the project introduced more than 43,000 square feet to the building's stack. The New York Post has reported the redevelopment cost roughly $100 million, per the figure cited in the Bisnow report.
Forklifts and similar powered industrial trucks are subject to federal safety rules covering their fire protection, design, maintenance and use, under standards maintained by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
