McPhillips v Bauman 2015 NY Slip Op 08218 Decided on November 12, 2015 Appellate Division, Third Department is the very rare case in which the State defends a legal malpractice case. Here, a host of prison employees and the state were sued for the death of an incarcerated prisoner . The physician’s conduct was unfavorably reviewed by the Commission of Correction Medical Review Board, and he was then added to the law suit. Although offered a settlement in which he did not pay or be held liable, he refused. He then demanded that a private attorney be assigned to him. While that motion was pending, his case was dismissed, and the reset of the matter was settled.
First: “This action followed in July 2013 with plaintiff alleging three bases for malpractice: defendant ignored a conflict of interest; defendant neglected to keep the 2010 memorandum confidential or seek redaction of the strongly worded unfavorable parts thereof; and defendant failed to inform plaintiff in a timely fashion of the existence of the 2010 memorandum (which he asserts he did not know about until 2013) so that he could have pursued a defamation action. He sought damages for injury to his professional reputation and mental anguish. Defendant moved to dismiss the complaint. Supreme Court granted the motion and this appeal ensued.
We affirm. Elements of a cause of action for legal malpractice include the existence of an attorney-client relationship (see Arnold v Devane, 123 AD3d 1202, 1203 [2014]), that “the attorney failed to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill and knowledge commonly possessed by a member of the legal profession and that the attorney’s breach of this duty proximately caused plaintiff to sustain actual and ascertainable damages” (Dombrowski v Bulson, 19 NY3d 347, 350 [2012] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; see Hyman v Burgess, 125 AD3d 1213, 1215 [2015]). It is undisputed that the federal action against plaintiff was dismissed with no admission of wrongdoing by him, as well as no monetary payment or liability by plaintiff. Although his treatment of inmates with asthma is purportedly now more closely monitored, there is no allegation that plaintiff lost his state job or suffered any economic harm in his employment. Plaintiff’s complaint did not allege pecuniary damages and “‘the established rule limit[s] recovery in legal malpractice actions to pecuniary damages'” (Kaufman v Medical Liab. Mut. Ins. Co., 121 AD3d 1459, 1460 [2014], lv denied 25 NY3d 906 [2015], quoting Dombrowski v Bulson, 19 NY3d at 352).
Second: “Even if there was a conflict of interest constituting an ethical violation as alleged by plaintiff, such a violation would not give rise to a viable legal malpractice claim absent pecuniary damages (see Guiles v Simser, 35 AD3d 1054, 1055-1056 [2006]). The absence of such damages is also fatal to the alleged disclosure error and, moreover, we recently held that the disclosed memorandum was “clearly pertinent” to the pending federal action and defendant’s disclosure thereof was “shielded by absolute privilege” (McPhillips v State of New York, 129 AD3d at 1362). Plaintiff urges that he does not need to allege pecuniary damages regarding defendant’s failure to advise of a potential defamation action because that potential action involved statements that tended to impugn his professional ability (see Schindler v Mejias, 100 AD3d 1315, 1316 [2012]). However, we need not directly address that issue because we agree with Supreme Court that, under the circumstances of this case, defendant did not have a duty in his representation pursuant to Public Officers Law § 17 to advise plaintiff of a potential separate private action involving nonparties (see Matter of O’Brien v Spitzer, 7 NY3d 239, 243 [2006] [“The purpose of Public Officers Law § 17 is, in essence, to provide insurance against litigation”]; Frontier Ins. Co. v State of New York, 87 NY2d 864, 867 [1995]). The remaining issues are either academic or unavailing.”