A case arising in Erie County concerning activities in Syracuse, and all about a couple of law firms from Buffalo is being broken up and returned to Buffalo even after the New York County Commercial Division accepted the case.

Fidelity Natl. Tit. Ins. Co. v Altshuler Shaham Provident Funds Ltd.  2014 NY Slip Op 06371  Decided on September 25, 2014  Appellate Division, First Department arises from real estate and titile insurance proceedings in Syracuse.

"This action stems from a failed loan relating to commercial real estate in Syracuse, New York (see generally Altshuler Shaham Provident Funds, Ltd. V GML Tower, LLC, 21 NY3d 352 [2013]).

Fidelity National Title Insurance Company issued a policy to Altshuler. In the New York County action, plaintiff Fidelity seeks a declaration that it properly denied coverage to defendant Altshuler. In the amended third-party complaint against Jaeckle, Altshuler asserts that Jaeckle committed legal malpractice by failing to, among other things, obtain adequate title insurance. The amended third-party complaint should have been dismissed for failure to state a cause of action (CPLR 3211[a][7]), because Fidelity did not make a claim against Altshuler for which Jaeckle "is or may be liable" (CPLR 1007; see Merchants Mut. Ins. Co. v Valilis, 11 AD2d 324, 326 [1st Dept 1960]; Ainspan v City of Albany, 132 AD2d 911, 913 [3d Dept 1987]). Based on the foregoing determination, it is unnecessary to reach Jaeckle’s other arguments in support of dismissal of the amended third-party complaint.

The motion court should have denied Altshuler’s motion to consolidate the New York County and Erie County actions (see County of Westchester v White Plains Ave., LLC, 105 AD3d 690, 691 [2d Dept 2013]). As we are dismissing the amended third-party complaint in the New York County action, the two actions no longer present common questions of law or fact (see CPLR 602[a]). The issue in the New York County action is whether Fidelity properly disclaimed coverage; this will turn on the wording of the policy, not whether Jaeckle committed malpractice by obtaining the wrong type of policy.

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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.

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