Judge Lewis of Supreme Court, Kings County decides a legal malpractice case coming from an motor vehicle negligence case.  Defendant attorneys brought the case in Civil Court in which jurisdiction is limited to $25,000.   They did not sue all the potential drivers and owners.  Client took the case away from defendants and gave it to new counsel who settled the case for $ 10,000.  They argued that the case was so damaged, that nothing better could be accomplished.  Hence, original attorneys were responsible for loss of further damages,

In Atiencia v Pinczewski  2015 NY Slip Op 50048(U)  Decided on January 22, 2015  Supreme Court, Kings County  Lewis, J. writes:  "The First Department has held that for the plaintiff to succeed in an action for legal malpractice where there was a settlement in the underlying case, she must "demonstrate that if not for the alleged acts of malpractice, [s]he would have been able to recover or proceed in a manner other than that which actually eventuated" (see Becker v Julien, Blitz & Schlesinger, P.C., 95 Misc 2d 64, 68 [1977]). "Where the termination [of a case] is by settlement rather than by dismissal or adverse judgment, malpractice by the attorney is more difficult to establish, but a cause of action can be made out if it is shown that assent by the client to the settlement was compelled because a prior misfeasance or nonfeasance by the attorneys left no other recourse (id. At 66). "As a matter of policy, cases once settled should not be readily relitigated as to their merits in another forum, where the original defendant has been released and the plaintiff’s original attorneys have become the defendants.Under those circumstances, the burden must be on the plaintiff seeking such recovery to demonstrate by evidence rather than by conclusory allegations, that he indeed suffered substantial financial loss because of misdeeds by his attorneys and not by second guessing as to their judgment" (see Becker, at 68). On appeal, the Appellate Division stated, "we agree with the Special Term that insofar as this action rests upon a claim [*4]that defendants’ misconduct resulted in an unfavorable settlement of plaintiff’s underlying claim against Zale Corporation, the complaint must be dismissed for the reason that it can only be the sheerest speculation whether a different handling of the case by defendants-attorneys, or participation by a particular member of the defendants’ firm, would have resulted more favorably to plaintiff than the settlement that was actually made. Accordingly, the second cause of action for malpractice was properly dismissed" (see Becker v. Julien, Blitz & Schlesinger, P.C., 66 AD2d 674, 19 [1978]). In the case at bar, the plaintiff has failed to demonstrate that she has suffered ascertainable damages or substantial financial loss proximately caused by the defendants’ breach of duty The plaintiff has also failed to demonstrate beyond the sheerest speculation whether a different handling of the case would have produced a more favorable outcome than the settlement that was actually made.

It is uncertain whether the defendants failed to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill and knowledge commonly possessed by a member of the legal profession. The fact that the defendants did not name Palaquibay as a party to the lawsuit and did not file the case in Supreme Court raise questions of fact as to whether or not they breached a duty to the plaintiff. However, a failure to exercise ordinary reasonable skill and knowledge is only one of four prongs that the plaintiff must prove in order to succeed on her claim. The plaintiff has failed, with more than conclusory allegations, to demonstrate ascertainable damages or substantial financial loss, let alone that they were proximately caused by the defendants. The medical records provided to the court, indicate that the plaintiff’s treatments following the accident totaled $11,441.39 (see Exhibit B of Defendant’s Affidavit). Those expenses were covered entirely by insurance approximately eight years prior to the $10,000.00 settlement. In her deposition dated March 26, 2012, the plaintiff states that she did not have to pay any money out-of-pocket and that she discontinued treatments when the insurance company stopped paying for them (see Plaintiff’s Deposition, at 73-74).With regards to the amount of time she missed from work, the plaintiff states that she had to take additional maternity leave to recover from the accident, that after returning to work she had to miss days to attend physical therapy, and that she lost salary because of the missed time (id, at 47-50). She contends that the $10,000.00 settlement was inadequate because it doesn’t cover the therapies that she would have undergone on her back, neck, shoulder, and knee which she says continued to be necessary as of the time of her deposition, (March 26, 2012). However, it is unclear what those therapies would be, if they are necessary, and how much they cost (id, at 87). The plaintiff has had adequate time to provide documentation indicating what further treatments are warranted, but has failed to do so. The plaintiff also says that she used some of the settlement money to undergo therapy in Staten Island but neither remembers the name of the facility where she treated, nor how much she spent on therapy (id, at 87-88). The plaintiff has provided no evidence to support the truth of her treatments, no documentation from a medical professional to support her contention of continued treatment after the settlement or need for treatment moving forward, and she provides no pay stubs or employers affidavits to support her claim of work-time or salary lost as a result of the accident. Simply put, the plaintiff has failed to prove the existence of ascertainable damages beyond the amount she received from the settlement.

In Perks v. Lauto, 760 N.Y.S.2d 231 (2003), where plaintiffs’ counsel failed to adequately investigate the assets and insurance coverage of a driver whose vehicle was involved in an accident with the plaintiff, the Second Department found that the appellants "submitting evidence establishing that the plaintiffs discharged them and hired new counsel two months before the plaintiffs settled their claim against the driver. Under such circumstances, subsequent counsel had a sufficient opportunity to protect plaintiffs’ rights, and any negligence by the appellants was not the proximate cause of the plaintiffs’ alleged damages." Here, subsequent counsel represented the plaintiff in the underlying matter for approximately four years prior to the settlement. This court finds four years to be a sufficient period of time to protect the plaintiff’s right and to relieve the defendants of proximate causation for alleged damages suffered by the [*5]plaintiff.

The court disagrees with plaintiff’s contention that this motion for summary judgment is barred by res judicata on the grounds that the defendants made similar arguments in a prior motion to dismiss that was denied. The court has the discretion to treat a CPLR 3211 motion to dismiss as a CPLR 3212 motion for summary judgment and the "disposition will as a rule be deemed a disposition on the merits and thus entitled to res judicata treatment. With such an impact, the treatment is not to be lightly indulged" (see CPLR § 3211, Commentary C3211:44). If the court intends to apply res judicata treatment to a motion to dismiss it should make the parties aware of its intent "so that an appropriate record may be made by the parties" (see Mareno v. Kibbe, 32 AD2d 825, 302 N.Y.S.2d 324 [2nd Dept 1969]). Here, the court never indicated to the parties that it intended to treat prior motion practice for the purposes of res judicata and finds that the plaintiff has failed to produce adequate evidence demonstrating that she has suffered ascertainable damages or that if she had suffered ascertainable damages, the defendants were the cause of those damages."