Owner A performs work in a NYC building.  Owner B is damaged.  Owner B sues Owner A as well as the building.  Lots of attorney fees are generated.  Owner B then sues the attorneys for the Board for legal malpractice.  Standing?  No.  Derivative claim on behalf of the Board.  No.  Second chance? Yes.

“This action…

The Appellate Division gave explicit advice, not often heard, on how to deal with an Order to Show Cause which a judge declines to sign.  In the end, everyone seems to have done it wrong.  In Cypress Hills Mgt., Inc. v Lempenski  2019 NY Slip Op 04677  Decided on June 12, 2019
Appellate Division,…

Dillon v Peak Envtl., LLC  2019 NY Slip Op 04548  Decided on June 7, 2019  Appellate Division, Fourth Department is the story of an upstate commercial case which went through a lot of procedural wrangling, up to the Appellate Division, with little forward movement.  Legal malpractice is an important but not properly plead part.

“Memorandum:…

It seems as if the Appellate Division scratched its head on this claim of legal malpractice.  It seemed not sure how to calculate the claimed departure from good practice.  In Kaplan v Conway & Conway  2019 NY Slip Op 04477  Decided on June 6, 2019  Appellate Division, First Department it questioned the foundation of…

Let’s assume that an attorney fails to make sure that there is a certificate of occupancy for the finished version of a home, and then a tree falls on the house, do we know enough to determine whether there was legal malpractice?  We fall into a familiar trap if our analysis ends with identification of…

From time to time we discuss Judiciary Law § 487, the ancient common law statute.  It is perhaps the oldest common law statute,  post-dating the Magna Carta  (1215) by only 60 years. It was imported into the common law at the birth of our nation.  Over time refinements and embellishments have been added, including the…

Naivete is the assigned cause of the sale of a building without full payment, but legal malpractice is the claimed reason.  Problem?  Plaintiff started the action 4 years after the sale.  Hudson 418 Riv. Rd., LLC v Safiya Consultants Inc.  2019 NY Slip Op 31506(U)  May 24, 2019  Supreme Court, Kings County  Docket Number:…

In what looks like a 9 year battle over attorney fees and legal malpractice allegations, it appears that everyone loses in this case.  Filemyr v Hall  2019 NY Slip Op 31526(U)  May 28, 2019  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 654563/2018  Judge: Andrew Borrok discusses limitations on attorney fee claims and the necessity of…