Ward v Klein 2022 NY Slip Op 02154 Decided on March 30, 2022 Appellate Division, Second Department gives an explanation of how and when a CPLR 205 recommencement of an action is viable and when it is not.

“The plaintiff hired the defendants to represent her in connection with certain disciplinary charges brought against her by the New York City Department of Buildings. After the defendants’ representation of the plaintiff terminated, the plaintiff commenced an action against them, inter alia, to recover damages for breach of contract, legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, and fraud (hereinafter the prior action). The Supreme Court issued an order in the prior action granting the defendants’ motion pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the complaint (see Ward v Klein, ___ AD3d ___ [Appellate Division Docket No. 2019-04894; decided herewith]). Among other things, the court concluded that the complaint in the prior action failed to state any legally cognizable cause of action (see id.).

The plaintiff then commenced this action by filing a complaint identical to the complaint in the prior action. The plaintiff subsequently filed an amended complaint to reflect a name change of one of the parties. The defendants moved, inter alia, pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the amended complaint. The Supreme Court granted that branch of the motion on the ground that this action was barred by the doctrine of res judicata. The plaintiff appeals.

“Under the doctrine of res judicata, a disposition on the merits bars litigation between the same parties, or those in privity with them, of a cause of action arising out of the same transaction or series of transactions as a cause of action that either was raised or could have been raised in the prior proceeding” (Bravo v Atlas Capital Group, LLC, 196 AD3d 627, 628 [internal quotation marks omitted]). A dismissal pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(7) for failure to state a cause of action “has preclusive effect only as to a new complaint for the same cause of action which fails to correct the defect or supply the omission determined to exist in the earlier complaint” (175 E. 74th Corp. v Hartford Acc. & Indem. Co., 51 NY2d 585, 590 n 1; see Furia v Furia, 116 AD2d 694, 695).

Here, the dismissal of the complaint in the prior action had preclusive effect in this action, since the plaintiff filed an amended complaint which, apart from the name change, was identical to the deficient complaint filed in the prior action (cf. Rapp v Lauer, 200 AD2d 726, 728; Furia v Furia, 116 AD2d at 695).”

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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.