Legal malpractice cases, as we have said, cover events and issues all over the world.  Here, a land-owner was unhappy about trespassers over his property, trying to get to a beach.  The annoyance led to litigation, to appeals, to legal malpractice and judiciary law § 487 claims.  Palmieri v Perry, Van Etten, Rozanski & Prima Vera, LLP  2017 NY Slip Op 32694(U)  December 7, 2017
Supreme Court, Suffolk County  Docket Number: 15-18431  Judge: David T. Reilly is just another example of the extreme reach of legal malpractice and JL § 487 cases.

“The genesis of this action (Palmieri IT) lies in another matter entitled Paul Palmieri v. Town of Babylon, Suffolk County Supreme Court, Index No. 17598-1999 (Palmieri l). In Palmieri I, which has endured its own tortured history, the plaintiff commenced an action against the Town of Babylon seeking to recover damages for alleged trespass by unspecified individuals onto his property using a public access way from a public road. Plaintiff lives near the end off  Little East Neck Road which terminates at the Great South Bay. It is from that terminus that plaintiff alleges the unspecified individuals gained access to his property.

A short recitation of the procedural history of Palmieri I, as culled from the record currently before the Court, is necessary for a full understanding of the instant determination. Palmieri I was seemingly settled when the parties entered into a Stipulation dated July 17, 2004 which was filed in the County Clerk’s office on August 6, 2004. According to the Stipulation, the Town agreed to erect or cause to be erected an eight (8′) foot high chain-link fence having a gate secured by a lock essentially blocking off public access to plaintiff’s property. The fence was to be built within sixty (60) days of the signing of the Stipulation. On July 24, 2006 the Town of Babylon moved to vacate that Stipulation based upon their contention that the proposed fence was illegal because it blocked navigable waters. A Justice of this Court [Cohalan, J.l agreed and granted that motion on June 11 2007. Plaintiff then appealed to the Appellate Division, Second Department. The Appellate Division reversed this Court in a decision dated November 25, 2008. At that point in the litigation rather than comply with its obligations under the Stipulation, the Town of Babylon filed a motion pursuant to CPLR §3211 seeking dismissal of the plaintiffs’ Complaint. That motion was denied and the decision affirmed (see Palmieri v. Town of Babylon, 87 AD3d 625 [2011]). Of note, the Appellate Division, Second Department declined to impose sanctions against the Town of Babylon, as requested by the plaintiff. This Court is unaware of what, if anything, occurred in the next six (6) years, however, on May 16, 2014, plaintiff moved for contempt against the Town of Babylon, the Supervisor and the Town Council. It appears from the record before the Court that the defendants therein claimed that the Town’s failure to erect the fence was due to the changing topography or the subject area in that Hurricane Sandy caused sufficient erosion such that the location of the proposed fence was now underwater thereby invoking the jurisdiction of the Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). The Town defendants maintained that approval from that agency was now necessary before the fence could be erected. On July 29th and 31st, 2015 that matter came to a hearing and in a decision dated October 29, 2015 the Court (Hudson, J.) denied the application for contempt based solely on an insufficiency of proof, but warned the parties that they should move expeditiously to fulfill the obligations imposed by the Stipulation.”

“After careful consideration, the Court finds that the plaintiffs causes of action sounding in tortious interference with a contract and violation of Judiciary Law §487 must be dismissed based upon the doctrine of collateral estoppel. Throughout the plaintiffs’ Complaint arc allegations that the defendants herein engaged in a scheme with the Town of Babylon to deny the plaintiff the relief afforded him within the 2004 Stipulation of Settlement. As the Palmieri I litigation endured the torturous history evidenced by the present record before the Court. certain factors occurred which operated to stall the Town’s obligation to construct the fence at issue, most notably the motions and appeals which litter the record. “

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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.