The statute of limitations, as we have commented recently, is a social policy which seeks to limit the backlog of potential claims now sitting in virtual warehouses around the nation.  You’ve been harmed, and that harm is actionable.  Society has decided that certainty of business and personal life requires that such claims be brought, or after a certain period, just abandoned.  So it is, and the statute is very powerful.  There are exceptions such as the “continuing wrong” doctrine discussed in Palmeri v Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP   2017 NY Slip Op 05794 [152 AD3d 457]  July 25, 2017  Appellate Division, First Department.

“In the complaint in this action, dated February 15, 2013, plaintiff asserted causes of action against defendant for breach of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty, gross negligence, professional negligence, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Plaintiff alleged that defendant, during its representation of Ramius in the FINRA investigation, shifted all responsibility for any alleged violations of FINRA’s rules to him, suggesting that plaintiff undertook certain wrongful actions without Ramius’s knowledge. Plaintiff further asserted that defendant disclosed to FINRA his internal, privileged communications with Ramius’s counsel, thus causing FINRA to assert charges against Palmieri. Moreover, plaintiff alleged that defendant disclosed information that it had learned during the time it represented him. Plaintiff also alleged that the FINRA complaint was primarily based on privileged statements he had made to counsel at Ramius, and that these statements were also disclosed during the course of Willkie’s representation of Ramius after it ceased representing him.”

“To begin, the motion court properly dismissed plaintiff’s claims for gross negligence, breach of contract, and breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing as duplicative of his legal malpractice claim, given that they are all based on the same facts and seek the same relief (Sun Graphics Corp. v Levy, Davis & Maher, LLP, 94 AD3d 669 [1st Dept 2012]).

Plaintiff’s claim for legal malpractice, in turn, is untimely. Claims for legal malpractice are subject to a three-year statute of limitations and accrue when the malpractice is committed, not when the client learns of it (Lincoln Place, LLC v RVP Consulting, Inc., 70 AD3d 594 [1st Dept 2010], lv denied 15 NY3d 710 [2010]; CPLR 214 [6]). Plaintiff’s legal malpractice claim first accrued on or about June 25, 2009, when defendant terminated its legal representation of him, but continued to represent Ramius in the ongoing FINRA investigation. He did not, however, file his claim until February 15, 2013, more than three years later.”

“However, the IAS court should have permitted the breach of fiduciary duty claim to proceed. The IAS court correctly noted that the claim was subject to a three-year statute of limitations. The court was mistaken, however, in finding that the allegedly wrongful conduct ended on June 25, 2009, when defendant unilaterally terminated its representation of plaintiff. On the contrary, defendant’s conduct extended through at least June 29, 2011, during which time it represented Ramius and its employees in their participation at plaintiff’s FINRA disciplinary hearing.

Here, plaintiff alleges not only that defendant breached its fiduciary duty when it terminated its professional relationship with him, but also when, until at least June 2011, it acted in a manner directly adverse to his interests. Where there is a series of continuing wrongs, the continuing wrong doctrine tolls the limitation period until the date of the commission of the last wrongful act (Harvey v Metropolitan Life Ins. Co., 34 AD3d 364 [1st Dept 2006]; see also Ring v AXA Fin., Inc., 2008 NY Slip Op 30637[U], *8 [Sup Ct, NY County 2008] [applying continuing violations doctrine to General Business Law § 349 claim where initial payments occurred outside statute of limitations but “the insurer . . . continued to bill, and . . . (plaintiff) . . . continued to pay” within three years of filing suit]).

Here, plaintiff has presented evidence of a “continuing wrong,” which is “deemed to have accrued on the date of the last wrongful act” (Leonhard v United States, 633 F2d 599, 613 [2d Cir 1980], cert denied 451 US 908 [1981]; Harvey, 34 AD3d at 364). Indeed, the record contains evidence sufficient to create an issue of fact as to whether defendant breached its fiduciary obligations to plaintiff after June 2009 and well into June 2011 during its ongoing representation of the Ramius parties.

For example, as noted, the record contains evidence that in the early portion of 2011, defendant helped Ramius identify witnesses who would testify against plaintiff at his FINRA disciplinary hearing. Similarly, defendant was present on behalf of Ramius and Ramius employees who testified at plaintiff’s FINRA hearing on June 28 through 29, 2011—a hearing at which the employees gave testimony that was generally adverse to plaintiff’s interests. This evidence is sufficient for a fact-finder to determine that defendant breached its duty of loyalty to plaintiff, a former client (see Cooke v Laidlaw Adams & Peck, 126 AD2d 453, 456 [1st Dept 1987] [ethical standards applying to the practice of law impose a continuing obligation upon lawyers to refuse employment in matters adversely affecting a client’s interests, even if the client is a former client]). Concur—Sweeny, J.P., Mazzarelli, Moskowitz and Kahn, JJ.