Thomas v Dinkes & Schwitzer, P.C. .2010 NY Slip Op 51666(U) ,Decided on September 23, 2010
Supreme Court, Kings County ,Rivera, J. tells us that a completely inchoherent complaint, while "filled with verbs, nouns, adverbs" etc, will be dismissed. 
 

"On June 16, 2009, plaintiff, proceeding pro se, filed a summons and complaint under index number 14881/09 with the Kings County Clerk’s office. On February 22, 2010, plaintiff filed an amended complaint. On April 15, 2010, plaintiff filed a rewritten amended complaint, which is dated March 9, 2010. Plaintiff’s amended complaint consists of seven pages and eleven paragraphs. Above every paragraph are headings which name various causes of action. The headings above the first, second, sixth, and seventh paragraphs state that the sentences below them are for causes of action in legal malpractice, and the headings [*2]above the third, fourth, fifth, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh paragraphs state that the sentences below them are for causes of action for breach of fiduciary duties, vicarious liability, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and conspiracy, respectively. The sentences in these paragraphs are not consecutively numbered. The complaint, although it contains numerous words, phrases, and sentences, is completely devoid of any coherent allegations of fact.
 

 Defendant strains to read meaning into plaintiff’s complaint, and addresses the requisite elements of causes of action for legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duties, vicarious liability, fraud, intentional infliction of emotional distress, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and conspiracy. However, since plaintiff has not satisfied the first requirement of pleading facts which give notice of the transactions or occurrences intended to be proved, there are no facts against which to apply the second requirement of whether the alleged facts state a cognizable cause of action (see CPLR 3013).

For example, "[a] cause of action to recover damages for legal malpractice requires proof of three elements: (1) that the defendant failed to exercise that degree of care, skill, and diligence commonly possessed and exercised by an ordinary member of the legal community, (2) that such negligence was the proximate cause of the actual damages sustained by the plaintiff, and (3) that, but for the defendant’s negligence, the plaintiff would have been successful in the underlying action" (Simmons, 32 AD3d at 465; see also Caruso, Caruso & Branda, P.C. v Hirsch, 41 AD3d 407, 409 [2007]; Edwards v Haas, Greenstein, Samson, Cohen & Gerstein, P.C.,17 AD3d 517, 519 [2005]; J-Mar Serv. Ctr., Inc. v Mahoney, Connor & Hussey, 14 AD3d 482, 483 [2005]). Since plaintiff has failed to satisfy the first hurdle of pleading factual allegations, he cannot meet the requirements of satisfying the above stated necessary showing to allege a sustainable cause of action for legal malpractice.

While, as discussed above, the court must liberally construe factual allegations and will not dismiss a complaint simply because of poor draftsmanship, here, the court cannot strain to give meaning to a pleading which completely fails to state any coherent or comprehensible factual allegations (see CPLR 3013). Thus, inasmuch as plaintiff’s complaint does not state any cognizable claim in law or in equity, it must be dismissed pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7) (see Heffez, 56 AD3d at 526; Simmons, 32 AD3d at 465).

 

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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.