Accountant (or other professional) is retained to provide professional services. On Day X the business to which the professional services are rendered “closes.” On Day x+10 the professional returns all the papers, does the final report and “resigns.” On which day does the three-year statute of limitations commence?
Weight v Day 2015 NY Slip Op…
In Pari Delicto, a delicious Latin phrase, is the principal that a court will not adjudicate rights between two guilty parties. This concept arises most often in accounting negligence settings, but does rear its head from time to time in legal malpractice. The accounting setting arises when the corporation sues its accountants, who defend…
Comer v Krolick 2015 NY Slip Op 32274(U) December 2, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 651767/2014 Judge: Shirley Werner Kornreich is a fascinating look at the world of big investments in the banking field, and how a Wisconsin guy got roped into a huge investment that either unluckily or fraudulently went sour.…
Architect malpractice cases follow some of the rule of legal malpractice. One such rule is the inability to obtain damages on duplicitive claims of breach of contract and professional negligence. Mary Imogene Bassett Hosp. v Cannon Design, Inc. 2015 NY Slip Op 03016 [127 AD3d 1377] April 9, 2015 Appellate Division, Third Department illustrates this…
There are many differences between contract liability and tort liability. One difference is the scope of persons to whom a duty applies. In contract the question of privity looms over every analysis; in tort, it is almost the entire world. Another difference is the measurement of damages. In contract damages are generally related to the…
DSW Lenox LLC v Rosetree on Lenox Ave. LLC 2015 NY Slip Op 32244(U) November 23, 2015 Supreme Court, New York County Docket Number: 652786/2011 Judge: Saliann Scarpulla is an example of the principal of privity and how it affects a legal malpractice case. DSW was a 30% owner of a condominium at 381 Lenox…
797 Broadway Group, LLC v Stracher Roth Gilmore Architects 2014 NY Slip Op 08689 [123 AD3d 1250] December 11, 2014 Appellate Division, Third Department discusses when and how a professional relationship between an architect and a client begins, ends, and the terms upon which the architect serves. There are “design-build” agreements and more simple ones…
Kaplan v Khanna 2015 NY Slip Op 25158 [48 Misc 3d 665] May 15, 2015 Braun, J. illustrates a virtual compendium of errors in litigation. Starting with making up the names of statutes, and failing to serve a complaint within 120 days, trying to sue a criminal defense attorney for mistakes without “actual innocence alleged,…
In a professional services setting, (in this case an accountant) when you can’t claim malpractice, you claim fraud. Malpractice in this case was not possible to claim, because there was no privilty, and the paper documents ruled out “near privity.”
Israel Discount Bank of N.Y. v EisnerAmper LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 51620(U) [45 Misc…
Women’s Integrated Network, Inc. v Anderson Kill P.C. 2015 NY Slip Op 08500
Decided on November 19, 2015 Appellate Division, First Department illustrates the all-consuming aspect of legal malpractice that sets it aside from all other areas of the law…the “but for” need to prove what would have happened if the attorneys had not made…
