By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesWhether there has been legal malpractice in a real estate development setting, or no malpractice at all depends on at least four elements. The least interesting of these elements is the departure. In almost every legal malpractice case there is a definite departure. It’s the “proximate cause” and the “but for” portions of the equation… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesReal Estate rules Manhattan, and big (really big) money is attracted to the thought of new buildings in prime locations. Bauhouse Group I, Inc. v Kalikow 2018 NY Slip Op 33055(U) December 4, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 158277/2017 Judge: Saliann Scarpulla is the story of a Sutton Place project which started, started to sour, went… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesBoesky v Levine 2018 NY Slip Op 33017(U) November 27, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650756/2017 Judge: Eileen Bransten is a story containing the only certainties in life: massive taxes and death, along with a tricky tax scheme, bankruptcies, indictments, millions of dollars in losses and 15 years of litigation. This case ends in dismissal, mostly for… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesPritisker v Zamansky, LLC 2018 NY Slip Op 32930(U) November 19, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 150595/2017 Judge: Frank P. Nervo is the kind of legal malpractice case that legal malpractice insurers love. It appears to be a one-off, or a pro-se case in which a checklist of the elements of legal malpractice have been overlooked,… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesThird-party practice between professionals is a major part of legal malpractice litigation. Here, the defendant attorneys point the finger at accountants and argue that mistakes in the tax filings caused the damage of which they are accused. Rubin v Duncan 2018 NY Slip Op 32934(U) November 16, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 154131/2015 Judge: Paul A. Goetz … Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesBrooklyn Med. Eye Assoc., LLC. v Rivkin Radler LLP, .2018 NY Slip Op 32913(U) November 13, 2018 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 505978/18 Judge: Leon Ruchelsman is an example of what happens when a doctor to doctor business sale goes wrong. “At the end of 2012 an entity called Craniofacial Surgery P.C., owned by Dr. Dominick Golio entered into… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesLopez v Lozner & Mastropietro, P.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 08017 Decided on November 21, 2018 Appellate Division, Second Department is a text-book lesson in how to calculate the legal malpractice statute of limitations in a motor-vehicle case where no case was started. It is three years from the date of the motor-vehicle accident plus three years. “In… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesIn a fight of first impression, Defendant is battling to keep plaintiff from taking over defendant’s potential legal malpractice case against his attorney. In this case, it seems that the Defendant and the attorney are childhood friends, and that Defendant would do almost anything (except pay plaintive) to protect the attorney. What loyalty! Borges v… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesJudge Ruchelsman spends time peeling back the onion layers in Woodcock v Birnbaum 2018 NY Slip Op 32841(U) November 7, 2018 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: 507014/18 to come to the decision on whether there was a violation of Judiciary Law § 487. Eventually, he finds that arguments were insufficient, but not deceitful. “During the fall of 2011 the… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesEquitable estoppel is (of course) an equitable defense to the statute of limitations. It is successfully invoked in the legal malpractice field when the target attorney says, for example, “don’t worry about that pesky statute of limitations, we’ll keep talking about settlement for a while.” What happens when plaintiff seeks to apply it to a… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesPersonal injury law firms face the economic facts of personal injury litigation, including the necessity of having a full shelf of cases to pursue. PI litigation takes time and what often happens is that the squeaky wheel case keeps the lawyer from working the less prominent case. Statutes of limitation keep on running along, however,… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesWeinberg v Kaminsky 2018 NY Slip Op 07652 Decided on November 13, 2018 Appellate Division, First Department is an example of the low-success attempt to recast a previously dismissed legal malpractice cause of action in another form. Here, the Court simply wiped out the second attempt. “Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Manuel Mendez, J.), entered February… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesGur v Nadel & Clarlo, P.C. 2018 NY Slip Op 32779(U) October 29, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 650275/2018 Judge: Arthur F. Engoron is an example of a legal malpractice case pled without regard to how one connects the complained of conduct with a bad economic outcome, or loss of a claim. In the end, there… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesPerhaps the better question is how did the underwriter not see subsequent new stories that the coal mine was a fiction? “According to the February 2016 complaint, plaintiff was co-lead underwriter of a public offering of stock by Puda Coal, Inc., whose principal asset was its 90% interest in Shanxi Coal. Defendant was retained as… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesCathedral Gardens Condo Assn. v 110th St. Equities, LLC. 2018 NY Slip Op 32618(U) October 15, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 600175/2009 Judge: William Franc Perry stands for the principle that there can be either direct liability for a failure to provide professional services (tort) which brings “loss of asset” style damages, or there can be… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesThe Client is deaf. A settlement is reached in his case. The attorneys translate the settlement proposal to American Sign Language and the settlement is sealed. The client then says that the settlement amount is not that which was translated. He says he is getting less than he was told in ASL. What to do?… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesWe have often wondered at the quick demise of businesses that have spent a lot of money and time setting up a storefront, only to close 4 or 5 months later. How could the owner invest so much and either mistake the customer base or make some other vast miscalculation? Agatha LLC v Heller 2018 NY… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice Basics,Legal Malpractice Cases,UncategorizedArmstrong v. Blank Rome LLP, Supreme Court, New York County, Index No. 651881/2013, Justice David B. Cohen, J., offers three lessons in a matrimonial – legal malpractice case. The first is that such a case can survive the post-Katebi v. Fink landscape. The second is that an unexplained conflict of interest can lead to a good Judiciary… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesSpiegel v Ahearn 2018 NY Slip Op 32472(U) October 1, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 101251/2016 Judge: Melissa A. Crane is a very unusual case. “Between 2006 and 2012, plaintiff pro se Michael Spiegel and defendants Thomas Ahearn, Liridona Kastrat, Kristopher Kennington, and David Ortiz were employed by the Hotel Edison (“Hotel”), located on West 47th Street in… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesThe development of an apartment building in Manhattan is a mega-big thing. Not only does it cost a lot, but there are a large number of difficult rules. W 106 Dev. LLC v Pilla 2018 NY Slip Op 32596(U) October 10, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 654801/2016 Judge: Debra A. James makes it clear that even… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesIn Sutton Animal Hosp. PLLC v D&D Dev., Inc. 2018 NY Slip Op 32425(U) September 24, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 652781/2016 Judge Debra A. James discusses the difference between negligence of a professional to one in privity and to one only in quasi-privity. The difference is enormous. “Moving defendants are correct that “‘recovery will not be granted to… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesMillian v Hafif & Assoc., PLLC 2018 NY Slip Op 51421(U) Decided on October 9, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County St. George, J. is the story of a condo purchase gone wrong. Many of the construction legal malpractice cases arise from water damages, as does this one. “In this legal malpractice case, plaintiffs allege that defendants were… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesIt is our experience that Courts more often dismiss an entire legal malpractice case rather then dissect the various claims and keep some while jettisoning the balance. Here, in Sehgal v DiRaimondo 2018 NY Slip Op 06619 Decided on October 4, 2018 the Appellate Division, First Department does just that. “Plaintiff, a lawful permanent resident of the United… Continue Reading
By Andrew Lavoott Bluestone on Posted in Legal Malpractice CasesIt was a $22 Million real estate purchase, and it was built on faulty foundations. In 71 Park Ave. S., LLC v Fox Rothschild LLP 2018 NY Slip Op 32451(U) October 1, 2018 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 158900/2017 Judge Saliann Scarpulla determines that one of the entities has no privity (and therefore no case) while the other… Continue Reading
