Matin v Chowdhury  2020 NY Slip Op 32491(U)  June 18, 2020  Supreme Court, Queens County  Docket Number: 701633/2019  Judge: Joseph Risi is the story of possible dual representation in the purchase of a franchise.  Naturally something went wrong, and now there are claims and third-party claims of legal malpractice.

“Applying these principles to the case at bar, the court concludes that the allegations of the third-party complaint as well as certain documentary evidence submitted by the Billah defendants, including e-mails and the underlying management agreements between Chowdhury and the plaintiff in the main action, Mohammed Matin (“Matin”), do not conclusivelyestablish as a matter of law that the Billah defendants are entitled to dismissal of the third-party claim for legal malpractice asserted against them. In an action to recover damages for legal malpractice, a plaintiff must demonstrate that the attorney failed to exercise the ordinary reasonable skill and knowledge commonly possessed by a member of the legal profession and that the attorney’s breach of this duty proximately caused the plaintiff to sustain actual and ascertainable damages (see Rudolf v Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 NY3d 438, 442 [2007]; Von Duerring v Hession & Bekoff, 71 AD3d 760 [2d Dept 2010]). To establish causation, a plaintiff must show that, but for the lawyer’s negligence, he
or she would have prevailed in the underlying action or would not have incurred any damages (id.).

Here, the third-party complaint sufficiently alleges a claim for legal malpractice by stating that, in 2018, Chowdhury believed that the Billah defendants were acting as her attorney with respect to the management agreement and the purchase agreement between Matin and Chowdhury, and that the Billah defendants were negligent in failing to advise and discuss with Chowdhury all the legal rights and remedies available to her, failing to know the applicable law, and failing to advise Chowdhury of a conflict of interest in representing both Matin and Chowdhury in connection with the management agreement. The third-party complaint further alleges that, as a result of this alleged negligence, Chowdhurysigned the management agreement thatshewould have not otherwise signed and forewent legal action to recover the $95,000.00 paid by Chowdhury in the purchase of the subject Subway restaurant. The Billah defendants primarily argue that they did not provide legal representation to Chowdhury in connection with the management agreement and subsequent asset
purchase agreement between Chowdhury and Matin. In support of their motion, the Billah defendants submitted an email dated June 28, 2016, in which it was stated that the Billah defendants represented Matin in the preparation of the contract of sale between Matin and Chowdhury and that Chowdhury informed Matin that she would not be represented by an attorney in the transaction, as well as the signed asset purchase agreement between the parties dated April 13, 2018, the signed management agreement between the parties dated October 4, 2017, and the signed management agreement between the parties dated January 16, 2018. These documents, however, do not completely disprove Chowdhury’s factual allegations of legal malpractice surrounding the events that occurred in connection with the management agreement and the asset purchase agreement between Matin and Chowdhury in 2018.”

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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.