After a trial, All Town Real Estate Associates has won a two part legal malpractice judgment, now affirmed by the Appellate Division.  In Island Props. & Equities, LLC v Cox ;2012 NY Slip Op 01656 ; Decided on March 6, 2012; Appellate Division, Second Department  we see that the attorney failed to handle two different aspects of real estate practice.  In the first, he failed to correct a motion seeking distribution of funds and in the second failed timely to file a mortgage. 
 

"In connection with the third cause of action, the plaintiff All Town Real Estate Associates, Inc. (hereinafter All Town), established that, but for the defendant’s negligence in failing to correct a motion in a foreclosure action to confirm a referee’s report and for distribution of surplus [*2]funds, where the motion had been rejected by the Supreme Court after the defendant filed it, All Town would have received the surplus funds deposited with a county treasurer after the real property in question had been foreclosed upon. However, since the evidence established that the amount of the surplus funds was $12,334.76, as opposed to $14,000, we modify the judgment accordingly.

With respect to the fifth cause of action, the evidence established that the defendant negligently delayed recording a mortgage on certain real property which secured a $50,000 loan from the plaintiff Island Properties & Equities, LLC (hereinafter Island). This delay allowed the borrower to refinance a first mortgage on the property without satisfying Island’s mortgage, and ultimately rendered Island’s mortgage worthless. We reject the defendant’s contention that the damages sustained by Island were speculative.

The defendant’s remaining contention is without merit. "