Oberlander v Simon 2026 NY Slip Op 03450 June 3, 2026 Appellate Division, Second Department is the culmination of years of disputes between Plaintiff and others concerning Felix Sater.

“In June 2022, the plaintiffs commenced this action, inter alia, to recover damages for a violation of Judiciary Law § 487. The plaintiffs alleged that in April 2015, the defendant Bradley D. Simon, through his former law firm, the defendant Simon & Partners, LLP, replaced the plaintiff Frederick M. Oberlander as counsel of record for Jody Kriss in two actions pending in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Thereafter, in November 2015, at a hearing held in connection with Kriss’ purported contempt of certain sealing orders, Felix Sater presented a pro se brief allegedly filed by Kriss, indicating that Kriss was in possession of documents that were previously ordered to be destroyed. In response, Simon argued that Kriss had never seen the brief before. After the hearing, Simon also filed an affidavit, on behalf of Kriss, in which Kriss averred that “he never approved filing anything under seal.”

“Here, accepting the allegations in the complaint as true and according the plaintiffs the benefit of every possible favorable inference, the allegations were insufficient to establish that the alleged acts of deceit were the proximate cause of any injury to the plaintiffs (see Judiciary Law § 487; Langton v Sussman & Watkins, 238 AD3d at 730; cf. Garanin v Hiatt, 219 AD3d 958, 959).”