Reported in today’s NYLJ by Joel Stashenko, is the Court of Appeals affirmance of a dismissal in an estate legal malpractice case. 

"The state Court of Appeals yesterday upheld the dismissal of a legal malpractice action against the firm formerly known as Goodkind Labaton Rudoff & Sucharow. Jack E. Maurer, who died in 2005 at age 86, contended in a 2003 suit that his attorneys misled him into signing away control of his estate. Among Mr. Maurer’s holdings were a $12 million apartment on Central Park West and a $3 million home on Long Island. He also contended the law firm was conflicted because it represented his wife, Rona, at the same time it was handling his estate planning. In an unsigned unanimous ruling in Bishop v. Maurer, 162, the Court agreed with the Appellate Division, First Department (NYLJ, Oct. 25, 2006) that while Mr. Maurer was generally bound by the estate planning documents he signed, he was not precluded from bringing a malpractice action if his attorneys negligently gave him an incorrect explanation of their contents. The Court ruled, however, that Mr. Maurer’s complaint was "devoid" of nonconclusory allegations of what his attorneys failed to tell him or how he was otherwise misled or given incorrect advice. Prior to his death, Mr. Maurer was chief executive officer of a financial research and consulting firm, Indicator Research Group. The law firm is now known as Labaton Sucharow & Rudoff."