Weinberg v Kaminsky  2018 NY Slip Op 07652  Decided on November 13, 2018
Appellate Division, First Department is an example of the low-success attempt to recast a previously dismissed legal malpractice cause of action in another form.  Here, the Court simply wiped out the second attempt.

“Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Manuel Mendez, J.), entered February 22, 2017, which denied plaintiff’s motion for a stay of eviction, and order, same court and Justice, entered August 4, 2017, which, to the extent appealed from, granted defendants David Kaminsky, Danielle Kaminsky (together, the Kaminsky defendants), Jeffrey Asher, Robinson Brog Leinwand, Green, Genovese & Gluck P.C. (collectively, the Asher defendants), and Leslie Sultan’s motion to dismiss the complaint as against them, denied the Asher defendants’ motion for sanctions, and denied plaintiff’s cross motion to amend the complaint, and order, same court and Justice, entered January 25, 2018, which granted defendants Linda Salamon and 371 West 46th Street Properties, LLC’s (collectively, the Salamon defendants) motion to dismiss the complaint as against them and denied plaintiff’s cross motion to amend the complaint, unanimously affirmed, without costs.

The claims against Sultan and the Asher defendants are barred by the doctrine of res judicata (see Weinberg v Sultan, 142 AD3d 767 [1st Dept 2016] [affirming, inter alia, summary dismissal of legal malpractice claims]). Although the present claims against these defendants do not sound in malpractice, they arise out of the same transaction as the dismissed malpractice claims (see Matter of Josey v Goord, 9 NY3d 386, 389-390 (2007]). Further, they are duplicative of the dismissed malpractice claims, since they do not allege independent intentionally tortious conduct (see Atton v Bier, 12 AD3d 240, 242 [1st Dept 2004]).

The claims against the remaining defendants are not subject to dismissal under res judicata, because they were dismissed not on the proof but on the sufficiency of the pleadings (see Imprimis Invs. v Insight Venture Mgt., 300 AD2d 109, 110 [1st Dept 2002]). However, the instant complaint, while more verbose than the prior complaint, still fails to state a cause of action for “overreaching, undue influence and fraud” (see Weinberg v Sultan, 142 AD3d 767). Many of the allegations in the complaint and the proposed amended complaint are made upon information and belief, which is “not sufficient to establish the necessary quantum of proof to sustain allegations of fraud” (Facebook, Inc. v DLA Piper LLP [US], 134 AD3d 610, 615 [1st Dept 2015], lv denied 28 NY3d 903 [2016]).”

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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.