AmTrust N. Am., Inc. v Pavloff  2022 NY Slip Op 02862 (204 AD3d 599]  April 28, 2022 Appellate Division, First Department demonstrates the high bar to a Judiciary Law §487 claim.  Deceit is not enough.  It must be “egregious.”

“The amended complaint states a cause of action for legal malpractice and the documents submitted do not utterly refute the factual allegations underlying that cause of action (see generally Rudolf v Shayne, Dachs, Stanisci, Corker & Sauer, 8 NY3d 438, 442 [2007]; Leon v Martinez, 84 NY2d 83, 87-88 [1994]; Goshen v Mutual Life Ins. Co. of N.Y., 98 NY2d 314, 326 [2002]; CPLR 3211 [a] [1], [7]). Dismissal of the cause of action for violation of Judiciary Law § 487 (1) is, however, warranted. The amended complaint does not allege, and the documents submitted do not indicate, that defendant Sherri Pavloff’s statement at the August 2017 proceeding in the underlying motor vehicle accident action was untrue. Even assuming Pavloff’s statement was deceitful, it is not sufficiently egregious to support a section 487 (1) cause of action (e.g. Mazzocchi v Gilbert, 185 AD3d 438, 438 [1st Dept 2020], lv denied 37 NY3d 908 [2021]; Shawe v Elting, 161 AD3d 585, 588 [1st Dept 2018], lv denied 32 NY3d 907 [2018]).”