This case illustrates what happens when defendants and third-parties are fighting, while plaintiff remains on the sidelines, enjoying a brief respite.  When this happens in a legal malpractice case, the spectacle of legal malpractice defense firm arguing with a legal malpractice defense firm over technical dismissals is a touch ironic.

Balkheimer v Spanton  2013 NY Slip Op 00715 [103 AD3d 603]  Appellate Division, Second Department   is one such example.  

"In an action to recover damages for legal malpractice, the third-party defendants appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Suffolk County (Tanenbaum, J.), dated December 9, 2011, which denied their motion pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (5) and (7) to dismiss the third-party complaint.

Ordered that the order is reversed, on the law, with costs, and the motion of the third-party defendants pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (5) and (7) to dismiss the third-party complaint is granted.

Pursuant to General Obligations Law § 15-108 (b), "[a] release given in good faith by the injured person to one tortfeasor as provided in [General Obligations Law § 15-108 (a)] relieves him [or her] from liability to any other person for contribution as provided in article fourteen of the civil practice law and rules." Here, the plaintiffs executed a general release in favor of the third-party defendants. There is no indication in the record that the release was not executed in good faith. Therefore, pursuant to General Obligations Law § 15-108 (b), the third-party defendants are relieved from liability to the third-party plaintiffs for contribution (see Ziviello v O’Boyle, 90 AD3d 916, 917 [2011]; Kagan v Jacobs, 260 AD2d 442 [1999]). Accordingly, the Supreme Court should have granted that branch of the motion of the third-party defendants which was pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (5) to dismiss the contribution cause of action in the third-party complaint as barred by the release.

Here, the third-party complaint does not allege the existence of any duty owed by the third-party defendants to the third-party plaintiffs (see Raquet v Braun, 90 NY2d at 183; Breen v Law Off. of Bruce A. Barket, P.C., 52 AD3d 635, 638 [2008]; Keeley v Tracy, 301 AD2d 502, 503 [2003]). Furthermore, the third-party plaintiffs would not be compelled to pay damages for the alleged negligent acts of the third-party defendants (see Lovino, Inc. v Lavallee Law Offs., 96 AD3d at 910; Jakobleff v Cerrato, Sweeney & Cohn, 97 AD2d 786, 786-787 [1983]). Accordingly, the Supreme Court should have granted that branch of the motion of the third-party defendants which was pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7) to dismiss the common-law indemnification cause of action in the third-party complaint."