Skarla v NPSFT LLC   2016 NY Slip Op 30152(U)  January 27, 2016  Supreme Court, Queens   County  Docket Number: 90/14  Judge: Allan B. Weiss  takes a long time to explain, but its all about real estate, and the desire to take over some juicy properties.  Did the attorney wrongfully help out?   That’s still to be decided, but while the legal malpractice case is gone, breach of fiduciary duty and other claims remain.

“Plaintiff commenced this action on January 6, 2014, asserting various claims, including causes of action against defendants Golfinopoulos for breach of fiduciary duty, fraud in the inducement, constructive fraud, fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment, and constructive trust. Plaintiff sought to set aside the judicial sale of the real properties known as 329 150 Street, Whitestone, New York (Block 4507, Lot 8) (the Whitestone property) th (a residential property) and 23-33 31 Street, Long Island City, New York (Block 835, Lot st 25) (the Long Island City property) (a commercial mixed-use property) (together “the mortgaged premises”) held on May 3, 2013 pursuant to the judgment of foreclosure and sale entered in the action entitled Eldridge Properties, Inc. v Skarla, (Supreme Court, Queens County, Index No. 10936/2007) (the foreclosure action), void the referee’s deed to Eldridge Properties, Inc. (Eldridge), and the deeds from Eldridge to NPSFT LLC (NPSFT) and NPSFT 1 LLC (NPSFT1) (the NPSFT entities), impose a constructive trust on the Whitestone and Long Island City properties, pierce the veils of the corporate defendants so as to recover damages individually from their officers, directors and employees, and for injunctive relief. Plaintiff alleged that due to the purported wrongful acts of defendants, she was unlawfully deprived of the Whitestone and Long Island City properties, and equity therein, through foreclosure and sale in the foreclosure action.”

“Thereafter, by order dated July 28, 2014, the action entitled Skarla v Golfinopoulos (Supreme Court, Index No. 7649/2014) was consolidated with the instant action. In that second action (Index No. 7694/2014), plaintiff Helen Skarla named Kostas Golfinopoulos, Esq. and Steven W. Stutman, Esq. as party defendants and asserted causes of action against defendant Golfinopoulos for legal malpractice and “attorney misconduct and deceit,” and sought compensatory, consequential, punitive and treble damages. By order dated December 8, 2014, the complaint insofar as asserted against defendant Steven Stutman, Esq. was dismissed and the remainder of the action was severed. Meanwhile, by order dated October 17, 2014 in the foreclosure action, the judicial sale of the Whitestone and Long Island City properties was vacated, and the referee’s deed to Eldridge, and the subsequent deeds dated June 5, 2013 from Eldridge were stricken from the records of the City Register. By virtue of the vacatur of the foreclosure sale and setting aside of the deeds, record title of the mortgaged premises was returned to plaintiff.”

“Defendants Golfinopoulos assert that because the foreclosure sale of the properties and the deeds have been set aside, plaintiff has suffered no cognizable injury to support the remainder of the causes of action (i.e., those portions not barred by the applicable statutes of limitations) based upon breach of fiduciary duty and fraud insofar as asserted against them. In an action for breach of fiduciary duty or fraud, injury is a required element of the cause of action (see Lama Holding Co. v Smith Barney, 88 NY2d 413, 421 [1996]; Channel Master Corp. v Aluminium Ltd. Sales, 4 NY2d 403, 407 [1958]; Kurtzman v Bergstol, 40 AD3d 588, 590 [2d Dept 2007]). Plaintiff alleges that during the period of the engagement of defendants Golfinopoulos, Golfinopoulos schemed with Steven Louros, Esq. to defraud her and enable defendants Eldridge and the NPSFT entities, companies with whom Golfinopoulos was purportedly associated, to acquire the mortgage loan and obtain the properties at a severely discounted value at foreclosure, and divest her of all ownership interest. Plaintiff also alleges that defendants Golfinopoulos breached their fiduciary duties to her by engaging in selfdealing and acting for the benefit of defendants Eldridge and the NPSFT entities rather than for her benefit. According to plaintiff, defendants Golfinopoulos conspired with Louros to acquire the note and mortgage on behalf of defendant Eldridge, and then received disbursed moneys from defendant Eldridge after the transfer of the parcels to the NPSFT entities. She alleges she suffered injuries including becoming homeless as a result of the reliance on the alleged advice of defendants Golfinopoulos to rent out her home in an effort to generate income, incurring legal fees to defendants Golfinopoulos relative to their representation of her in connection with the foreclosure action, incurring of expenses and legal fees related to the efforts to set aside the foreclosure sale and subsequent deeds, and incurring, during the period of her divestment of title, water damage to and building violations on the Whitestone property. Plaintiff hence has sufficiently alleged the element of injury to state causes of action based upon breach of fiduciary duty and fraud insofar as asserted against defendants Golfinopoulos.”

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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.