NJ- seller a no show at closing

[Andrew Marzec]

Hi All, I was under contract to close on a multi-fam in NJ. My closing date was scheduled for 4/19 but the seller was trying to make changes to the original contract. So since negations we're not complete on 4/19 we postponed the closing. A few days after that he was still trying to get us to agree to the changes or he said he would back out. We only wanted to move forward with the terms of the original contract. My lawyer sent a time of essence letter to his lawyer with a closing date of 5/4. Needless to say the seller did not show. He sent an email the night before to his lawyer stating family issues and a lot of other bs reasons why he could not sell the house. Has anyone had this issue before? how should I proceed? Thanks!