In this legal malpractice case, many of the causes of action are now weeded out after CPLR 3211 motions.  H.P.S. Mgt. Co., Inc. v St. Paul Surplus Lines Ins. Co.   2012 NY Slip Op 09028
Decided on December 26, 2012   Appellate Division, Second Department  
 

"In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for breach of contract, legal malpractice, and fraud, the plaintiffs appeal, as limited by their brief, from so much of an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Driscoll, J.), dated May 12, 2011, as granted those branches of the motion of the defendants St. Paul Surplus Lines Insurance Company and Travelers Companies, Inc., which were pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the second, third, fourteenth, and fifteenth causes of action, all without leave to replead, granted that branch of the same motion which was pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss so much of the tenth cause of action as sought an award of an attorney’s fee against those defendants, granted that branch of the separate motion of the defendants Seabury & Smith, Inc., Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc., and Marsh Affinity Group Services which was pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the eleventh cause of action, without leave to replead, granted those branches of the separate motion of the defendant Wilton Reassurance Life Company of New York which were pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the eighth, twelfth, and thirteenth causes of action, all without leave to replead, and granted that branch of the separate motion of the defendants Babchik & Young, LLP, and Jack Babchik which was pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss, insofar as asserted against those defendants, the fourth cause of action.

ORDERED that the order is affirmed insofar as appealed from, with one bill of costs payable to the defendants appearing separately and filing separate briefs. [*2]

Contrary to the plaintiffs’ contention, the Supreme Court applied the proper standard in reviewing the defendants’ motions to dismiss various causes of action in the amended complaint that were asserted against each of them (see generally Garner v China Natural Gas, Inc., 71 AD3d 825, 826; Davis v Davis, 71 AD3d 13, 19; Ruffino v New York City Tr. Auth., 55 AD3d 817, 818). The Supreme Court did not err in directing the dismissal of the causes of action that are the subject of this appeal, as they either failed to state a cause of action, were untimely interposed, or were duplicative of other causes of action that were asserted (see generally CPLR 214[4]; Chase Scientific Research v NIA Group, 96 NY2d 20, 30; Colasacco v Robert E. Lawrence Real Estate, 68 AD3d 706, 708; Kantrowitz v Allstate Indem. Co., 48 AD3d 753, 754; Paterra v Nationwide Mut. Fire Ins. Co., 38 AD3d 511, 512-513; LoPresti v Massachusetts Mut. Life Ins. Co., 30 AD3d 474, 476; Tortura v Sullivan Papain Block McGrath & Cannavo, P.C., 21 AD3d 1082, 1083; Laruccia v Forchelli, Curto, Schwartz, Mineo, Carlino & Cohn, 295 AD2d 321, 322). The Supreme Court also properly denied the plaintiffs’ requests for leave to replead that are raised on this appeal (see generally Janssen v Incorporated Vil. of Rockville Ctr., 59 AD3d 15, 27; Smith-Hoy v AMC Prop. Evaluations, Inc., 52 AD3d 809, 811). Accordingly, the order must be affirmed insofar as appealed from. "
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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.