Settlement brings the end of a litigation, and sometimes bliss. Other times settlement brings remorse. Parties must sometimes be pushed into settlements, and an inherent conflict between the attorney and the client might surface when their interests diverge at settlement.
In Salazar v Sacco & Fillas, LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 00980 [114 AD3d 745] February 13, 2014
Appellate Division, Second Department the client puts forth a credible account of being bullied into settlement with false claims that he owed fees to the attorney and could be personally liable if he did not settle.
"The plaintiff retained the defendants Sacco and Fillas, LLP (hereinafter the law firm), and attorneys Tonino Sacco and Elias Nikolaos Fillas, who allegedly were partners in the law firm, to represent him as a plaintiff in a personal injury action and to represent two corporate entities that he controlled, Always First, Inc., and Always Fast, Inc. (hereinafter together the Always companies), in connection with certain commercial litigation.
The law firm settled the personal injury action on behalf of the plaintiff, and received certain settlement proceeds on the plaintiff’s behalf. Thereafter, the plaintiff and the Always companies, as "the client," and the law firm entered into an agreement (hereinafter the settlement agreement). The settlement agreement provided that, in exchange for the law firm’s agreement to "discount outstanding balances" due the law firm from the Always companies, "the client" agreed to give up all rights to certain sums due "the client" from three enumerated litigations.
The plaintiff thereafter commenced the instant action, seeking to recover damages he allegedly sustained as a result of the defendants’ legal malpractice, breach of contract, and fraud. The plaintiff alleges, inter alia, that the defendants breached the retainer agreement relating to the personal injury action in that they intentionally failed to pay him the settlement funds from that [*2]action. The plaintiff also alleges that he was fraudulently induced into signing the settlement agreement. The defendants moved to dismiss the complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7). The Supreme Court, upon concluding that the complaint alleged intentional acts only, granted the defendants’ motion only insofar as it sought to dismiss the first cause of action, sounding in legal malpractice. The defendants appeal.
When assessing a motion to dismiss a complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7) for failure to state a cause of action, "the court must liberally construe the complaint, accept all facts as alleged in the pleading to be true, accord the plaintiff the benefit of every favorable inference, and determine only whether the facts as alleged fit within any cognizable legal theory" (Minovici v Belkin BV, 109 AD3d 520, 521 [2013]; see Leon v Martinez, 84 NY2d 83, 87-88 [1994]; Treeline 990 Stewart Partners, LLC v RAIT Atria, LLC, 107 AD3d 788, 791 [2013]).
The complaint adequately states a cause of action against the defendants sounding in breach of contract.
To state a cause of action sounding in fraud, a plaintiff must allege that "(1) the defendant made a representation or a material omission of fact which was false and which the defendant knew to be false, (2) the misrepresentation was made for the purpose of inducing the plaintiff to rely upon it, (3) there was justifiable reliance on the misrepresentation or material omission, and (4) injury" (Selechnik v Law Off. of Howard R. Birnbach, 82 AD3d 1077, 1078 [2011]; see McDonnell v Bradley, 109 AD3d 592, 592-593 [2013]). In the instant matter, the complaint alleged that Fillas, one of the attorneys representing the plaintiff and the Always companies, made certain false statements, including, inter alia, misrepresenting the amount of past-due attorney’s fees owed by the Always companies, and falsely stating, in effect, that he could sue the plaintiff personally for the sums allegedly owed by the Always companies. The complaint further alleged that these statements were known by Fillas to be false at the time they were made, and were intended to deceive, coerce, and induce the plaintiff into entering into the settlement agreement, and that the plaintiff relied on these statements to his detriment. Accordingly, these allegations were sufficient to state a cause of action alleging fraud against Fillas and the law firm (see Partnership Law §§ 24, 25, 26 [e]; Rabos v R&R Bagels & Bakery, Inc., 100 AD3d 849 [2012])."