Taxi jumps a curb and strikes a person simply standing there.  Excuse by the licensed taxi driver is that he pushed the gas and brake at the same time. Injured Plaintiff is awarded partial summary judgment and negotiations start from there.  Eventually the case is settled well in excess of the policy limits. Is there…

Barrett v Goldstein 2017 NY Slip Op 30011(U) January 4, 2017 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 154225/2016 Judge: Arlene P. Bluth is the second half of a two-part decision arising from a divorce mediation which went wrong for plaintiff.  Yesterday, we saw that the mediator was let out of the case.  Today, plaintiff’s…

13.  Emigrant Funding Corp. v Nunez   2016 NY Slip Op 32089(U)  May 25, 2016  Supreme Court, Queens County  Docket Number: 16111/2009  Judge: Robert J. McDonald    Our review of the entire year’s cases highlights the large number of foreclosure actions in which (almost as a reflex) JL 487 claims are raised against both the bank’s attorneys…

Continuing on our survey of all the JL 487 cases last year we move on to the spring:

10.  Little Rest Twelve, Inc. v Zajic
2016 NY Slip Op 01767 [137 AD3d 540]
March 15, 2016
Appellate Division, First Department discusses a concept that we will see further refined later:

“As discussed below, the motion…

McDowell v HSBC Bank, USA, N.A.  2016 NY Slip Op 32493(U)  December 20, 2016  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 154900/13  Judge: Shlomo S. Hagler is a footnote to “The Big Short” and illustrates how the sub-prime mortgage market operated at a retail level.

“McDowell was an “elderly person of color” who owned premises…

Where else in this fair country could a dispute over replacement of a washing machine escalate to litigation over Judiciary Law 487, treble damages, attorney fees and the business judgment rule?  Only in Manhattan and probably only in a coop.  Plaintiff had to get permission to put in the washer/dryer and then when it broke…

Plaintiff agrees to buy a newly constructed home, so long as the builder can produce a Certificate of Occupancy.  Of course, there is no C of O at the closing, and everyone goes into a song and dance.  Escrows, title insurance promises and monies paid to the attorneys cloud the story.  Now, after a slew…

Arbor Realty Funding, LLC v Herrick, Feinstein LLP  2016 NY Slip Op 08935  Decided on December 29, 2016  Appellate Division, First Department is certainly a case about money.  Note the level of defense attorney players here…Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP, Steptoe & Johnson LLP, Blank Rome, LLP, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton and Garrison LLP, New…