Huli Ma v Hui Chen 2023 NY Slip Op 06031 Decided on November 22, 2023
Appellate Division, Second Department is a Connecticut and New York legal malpractice claim that the attorney was also a business partner with Plaintiff.

“In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for breach of fiduciary duty, legal malpractice, fraud, and conversion, the plaintiff appeals, and the defendant Hui Chen cross-appeals, from an order of the Supreme Court, Queens County (Robert J. McDonald, J.), entered April 21, 2021. The order, insofar as appealed from, granted those branches of the motion of the defendant Hui Chen which were pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the first and fifth causes of action insofar as asserted against him and so much of the second, third, fourth, and sixth causes of action insofar as asserted against him as sought to recover damages relating to a real estate transaction involving certain property located in Flushing. The order, insofar as cross-appealed from, denied those branches of that defendant’s motion which were pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss so much of the second, third, fourth, and sixth causes of action insofar as asserted against him as sought to recover damages relating to a real estate transaction involving certain properties located in Stamford, Connecticut, and to impose sanctions and for an award of costs and attorneys’ fees pursuant to 22 NYCRR 130-1.1.

ORDERED that the order is modified, on the law, by deleting the provision thereof granting that branch of the motion of the defendant Hui Chen which was pursuant to CPLR 3211(a) to dismiss the first cause of action insofar as asserted against him, and substituting therefor a provision denying that branch of the motion; as so modified, the order is affirmed insofar as appealed and cross-appealed from, without costs or disbursements.”

“With respect to the Stamford transaction, the amended complaint alleged that in or about September 2016, the defendant persuaded the plaintiff to purchase six condominium units in Stamford, Connecticut. The plaintiff alleged that she later learned that the condominium units had been “flipped” by the defendant and his business partner to sell to the plaintiff at a price over and above the market price. The plaintiff alleged that the Stamford transaction netted the defendant and his business partner “approximately $139,000 profit all at [her] expense.”

With respect to the Flushing transaction, the amended complaint alleged that in or about June 2017, the defendant told the plaintiff that he had several investors who were investing in a property in Flushing (hereinafter the Flushing property). The defendant told the plaintiff that he and the investors would each invest $2,000,000 to purchase the Flushing property. The defendant later told the plaintiff that $500,000 of his pledged investment was “tied up in China,” and he needed to borrow $500,000 from the plaintiff to avoid “losing a substantial . . . down payment.” The plaintiff agreed to lend the defendant the $500,000, and the defendant presented the plaintiff with a “Redemption Agreement” reflecting the loan, which increased the loan amount to $666,360. The amended complaint alleged that the defendant failed to repay the $666,360 as required by the redemption agreement.”

“”A release is a contract, and its construction is governed by contract law” (Schiller v Guthrie, 102 AD3d 852, 853 [internal quotation marks omitted]; see Cardinal Holdings, Ltd. v Indotronix Intl. Corp., 73 AD3d 960, 962). “Generally, a valid release constitutes a complete bar to an action on a claim that is the subject of the release” (Nucci v Nucci, 118 AD3d 762, 763; see Burnside 711, LLC v Amerada Hess Corp., 175 AD3d 557, 559). “If the language of a release is clear and unambiguous, the signing of a release is a jural act binding on the parties” (Nucci v Nucci, 118 AD3d at 763; see Booth v 3669 Delaware, 92 NY2d 934, 935; Mangini v McClurg, 24 NY2d 556, 563). “Where the release is unambiguous, a court may not look to extrinsic evidence to [*3]determine the parties’ intent” (Burgos v New York Presbyt. Hosp., 155 AD3d at 600). A defendant bears the initial burden of establishing that he or she has been released from any claims (see Centro Empresarial Cempresa S.A. v América Móvil, S.A.B. de C.V., 17 NY3d 269, 276).

The Supreme Court erred in granting that branch of the defendant’s motion which was to dismiss the first cause of action, alleging breach of the redemption agreement, insofar as asserted against him. It cannot be determined as a matter of law whether the release was intended to discharge the defendant from a cause of action that both relates to the Flushing property and seeks to enforce the redemption agreement (see Galster Rd. Props., LLC v Penske Truck Leasing Co., L.P., 195 AD3d 1502, 1502-1503; Mazzurco v PII Sam, LLC, 153 AD3d 1341, 1342; Desiderio v Geico Gen. Ins. Co., 107 AD3d 662, 663).”

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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.