Hutcher v Madison Sq. Garden Entertainment Corp. 2022 NY Slip Op 34417(U)
December 23, 2022 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: Index No. 653793/2022 Judge: Lyle E. Frank is already a famous case. Banned from MSG, these attorneys took to the courts.

The present action anses out of Defendant MADISON SQUARE GARDEN ENTERTAINMENT CORP.’s (“MSG”) policy related to denying entry to its premises to attorneys associated with lawsuits against it. Plaintiffs are all such attorneys, bringing the present action to seek an order to: (1) enjoin and restrain Defendants from taking any action that may adversely impact Hutcher’ s Season Tickets, and lifting MSG’ s ban on Plaintiffs from entering MSG Venues; (2) declare MSG’ s decision to revoke Hutcher’ s Season Tickets to be in violation of ACAL §25.30(2); (3) declare MSG’s decision to ban Plaintiffs from MSG Venues to be in violation of CRL §40-b plus damages; (4) declare MSG’s decision to revoke Hutcher’s Season Tickets to be in violation of ACAL §25.30(2) and Defendants’ decision to ban Plaintiffs to be in violation of CRL §40-b; (5) Damages arising out of alleged Prima Facie Tort Against MSG; (6) Damages arising out of alleged Violation of Judiciary Law §487 Against Weidenfeld; (7) Damages arising out of alleged Tortious Interference with Business Relations Against MSG; and (8) Damages arising out of alleged Aiding and Abetting in Violation of CRL §40-b Against Weidenfeld.
Defendants now move to dismiss Plaintiffs’ complaint in its entirety.”

Here, Plaintiffs fail to show both the first and the third prong of the CapLOC test, as the
allegations are vague and conclusory and fail to identify a specific business relationship that was allegedly adversely affected, nor do they show that defendants acted with the sole purpose of harming the plaintiff. This seventh cause of action is accordingly dismissed. It is therefore 0RDERED that the motion to dismiss is granted with regards to Plaintiffs’ causes of action one, two, five, six, and seven only, and denied as to the remaining counts.”

Print:
Email this postTweet this postLike this postShare this post on LinkedIn
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.