Shaffer v Gilberg   2015 NY Slip Op 00865 [125 AD3d 632]  February 4, 2015  Appellate Division, Second Department shows you how deadly matrimonial litigation can get.  Wife suddenly produces notes for all the money that her parents gave to the couple, and claims that she owes the parents $ 629,000 or so, and that husband has to pay back half.  Husband is understandably shocked.  Did the lawyers commit a violation of JL § 487?

“The plaintiff, who was a party to a highly contentious matrimonial action, contested the authenticity of 30 separate promissory notes and loans submitted by the wife in that action and reflected as liabilities in her net worth statement. The notes indicated that the wife owed her father, Gerald N. Gilberg, her mother, Frances Gilberg, and her mother and father’s corporations, The Gilberg Organization, Inc., and TGA of Palm Beach, Inc. (hereinafter collectively the Gilberg defendants), in excess of $446,000 which, with added interest, amounted to more than $669,000. The plaintiff maintained that each of the 30 loans had actually been a gift from his in-laws to him and his wife and their family during the course of a 12-year period. The plaintiff theorized that the wife and her parents were improperly attempting to reduce the marital estate in order to also reduce the plaintiff’s share of the marital estate.

[*2] In the matrimonial action, the plaintiff submitted documents which cast into doubt the authenticity of the notes. Shortly after the plaintiff submitted these documents, the wife’s attorney, James J. Nolletti, a partner with Collier, Halpern, Newberg, Nolletti & Bock, LLP (hereinafter together the Collier defendants), withdrew the attorney certification to the wife’s net worth statement.

Eventually, the plaintiff and his wife were able to reach a settlement agreement. As part of the agreement, the wife took responsibility for any debts in her name or guaranteed by her and the plaintiff was awarded a distributive award from the marital estate.”

“The Supreme Court properly directed the dismissal of the sixth cause of action, asserted against the Collier defendants, which alleged a violation of Judiciary Law § 487, which “requires, among other things, an act of deceit by an attorney, with intent to deceive the court or any party” (Curry v Dollard, 52 AD3d 642, 644 [2008]). The plaintiff’s allegations regarding an act of deceit or intent to deceive are conclusory and factually insufficient. In any event, the evidentiary material the Collier defendants submitted in support of their motion disproved the plaintiff’s allegations (see Siskin v Cassar, 122 AD3d at 717; Maksimiak v Schwartzapfel Novick Truhowsky Marcus, P.C., 82 AD3d 652, 652 [2011]; Curry v Dollard, 52 AD3d at 644; Lazich v Vittoria & Parker, 189 AD2d 753, 754 [1993]).”