ITHACA:  This story is right out of the news, and is not yet a court decision.  Seneca County is at war with the Cayuga Indian Nation, and it’s over money, no surprise.  Even less surprising, its over real estate and taxes.  So, the question is whether the county may foreclose on certain property for the failure to pay taxes?  Seneca County lost in US District Court, and then again in the Second Circuit.  The NYLJ reports that Harris Beach, a big legal player in upstate New York was hired to file for certiorari.  It did not do so in time.  Now, the legal malpractice follows.

“Harris Beach previously defended Seneca County, situated between Rochester and Syracuse, in litigation against the Cayuga Indian Nation of New York over whether the county can foreclose on its property for failing to pay real estate taxes. In August 2012, Judge Charles Siragusa held that county foreclosure actions were barred by tribal sovereign immunity, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit later affirmed (NYLJ, Aug. 4, 2014).

Seneca County claims the firm agreed to seek an appeal to the Supreme Court, and it was required to file a petition for writ of certiorari. But in 2014, Harris Beach informed Seneca County that its attempted appeal was unsuccessful and the Supreme Court denied its motion to file an “out-of-time” petition.

According to that petition, filed as a court exhibit, Harris Beach attorneys said they contacted an experienced appellate printer who ultimately told the firm a wrong due date.”

Question:  How will the County prove that the US Supreme Court would have granted certiorari (a discretionary act) and then would have reversed (an even more discretionary act)?

We’ll keep tuned.

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Andrew Lavoott Bluestone

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened…

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened his private law office and took his first legal malpractice case.

Since 1989, Bluestone has become a leader in the New York Plaintiff’s Legal Malpractice bar, handling a wide array of plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases arising from catastrophic personal injury, contracts, patents, commercial litigation, securities, matrimonial and custody issues, medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, real estate, landlord-tenant, foreclosures and has defended attorneys in a limited number of legal malpractice cases.

Bluestone also took an academic role in field, publishing the New York Attorney Malpractice Report from 2002-2004.  He started the “New York Attorney Malpractice Blog” in 2004, where he has published more than 4500 entries.

Mr. Bluestone has written 38 scholarly peer-reviewed articles concerning legal malpractice, many in the Outside Counsel column of the New York Law Journal. He has appeared as an Expert witness in multiple legal malpractice litigations.

Mr. Bluestone is an adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University College of Law, teaching Legal Malpractice.  Mr. Bluestone has argued legal malpractice cases in the Second Circuit, in the New York State Court of Appeals, each of the four New York Appellate Divisions, in all four of  the U.S. District Courts of New York and in Supreme Courts all over the state.  He has also been admitted pro haec vice in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida and was formally admitted to the US District Court of Connecticut and to its Bankruptcy Court all for legal malpractice matters. He has been retained by U.S. Trustees in legal malpractice cases from Bankruptcy Courts, and has represented municipalities, insurance companies, hedge funds, communications companies and international manufacturing firms. Mr. Bluestone regularly lectures in CLEs on legal malpractice.

Based upon his professional experience Bluestone was named a Diplomate and was Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys in 2008 in Legal Malpractice. He remains Board Certified.  He was admitted to The Best Lawyers in America from 2012-2019.  He has been featured in Who’s Who in Law since 1993.

In the last years, Mr. Bluestone has been featured for two particularly noteworthy legal malpractice cases.  The first was a settlement of an $11.9 million dollar default legal malpractice case of Yeo v. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman which was reported in the NYLJ on August 15, 2016. Most recently, Mr. Bluestone obtained a rare plaintiff’s verdict in a legal malpractice case on behalf of the City of White Plains v. Joseph Maria, reported in the NYLJ on February 14, 2017. It was the sole legal malpractice jury verdict in the State of New York for 2017.

Bluestone has been at the forefront of the development of legal malpractice principles and has contributed case law decisions, writing and lecturing which have been recognized by his peers.  He is regularly mentioned in academic writing, and his past cases are often cited in current legal malpractice decisions. He is recognized for his ample writings on Judiciary Law § 487, a 850 year old statute deriving from England which relates to attorney deceit.