Sometimes short and concisely written opinions contain much information. Today, we cconclude with  Jefferson Apts., Inc. v Mauceri  2016 NY Slip Op 26230  Decided on July 25, 2016  Supreme Court, Queens County  Ritholtz, J. are simple.  An accounting firm is hired to oversee the basic accounting needs of a corporation.  Lots of money is missing.  It takes a while to figure out that there is a problem.  What happens to the professional negligence suit?

Negligent Misrepresentation and aiding and abetting a tort:

“The branch of the motion which is to dismiss plaintiff’s claim against Mauceri for aiding and abetting the commission of a tort for failure to plead with particularity, is denied. To assert a claim for aiding and abetting, plaintiff must allege (1) the existence of an underlying tort; (2) defendant’s actual knowledge of the underlying tort; and (3) defendant’s provision of substantial assistance in the commission of the underlying tort. Thus, to allege aiding and abetting fraud, for example, plaintiff must allege that defendant had actual knowledge of the fraud and provided substantial assistance in its commission (In re Bayou Hedge Funds Inv. Litig., 472 F. Supp. 2d 528, 532 [S.D.NY 2007]; Steed Finance LDC v Laser Advisers, Inc., 258 F. Supp. 2d 272, 282 [S.D.N.Y.2003]). Here, plaintiff alleges multiple torts against co-defendants Caputo and Tribor sounding in conversion, fraud, fraudulent concealment, breach of fiduciary duty and negligence. As to particularization of the claim, plaintiff alleges that Mauceri knew of the co-defendants’ unauthorized transfers of plaintiff’s funds and failed to report the same. The specifics as to the amounts, dates and recipients of the unauthorized transfers are also alleged with particularity throughout the complaint.

The elements of a claim for negligent misrepresentation are: “(1) the existence of a special or privity-like relationship imposing a duty on the defendant to impart correct information to the plaintiff; (2) that the information was incorrect; and (3) reasonable reliance on the information” (J.A.O. Acquisition Corp. v Stavitsky, 8 NY3d 144, 148 [2007]; see, Hudson Riv. Club v Consolidated Edison Co. of NY, 275 AD2d 218, 220 [2000]). The branch of the motion which is to dismiss the eleventh cause of action (negligent misrepresentation), is granted as the same is duplicative of the professional malpractice claim as they arose from the same facts and do not allege distinct damages (see, Blanco v Polanco, 116 AD3d 892 [2014]; Bruno v Trus Joist a Weyerhaeuser Bus., 87 AD3d 670 [2011]; Leon Petroleum, LLC v Carl S. Levine & Associates, P.C., 80 AD3d 573 [2011]; Stuart v Kushner, 68 AD3d 974 [2009]; Town of Wallkill v Rosenstein, 40 AD3d 972 [2007]; cf. Rosenbach v Diversified Grp., Inc., 2006 WL 1310656, 2006 NY Slip Op. 50856(U) [Sup. Ct. New York County 2006]).”

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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.