Sure, the Second Department is busy, and there is a constant and steady stream of cases coming before it, 20 every day. Nevertheless, a couple of facts in the decision might help practitioners in their everyday legal lives.
Barker v Amorini 2014 NY Slip Op 06931 Decided on October 15, 2014 Appellate Division, Second…
Plaintiff hires attorneys to file a disability claim. Claim is denied. Plaintiff sues attorneys on the theory that they failed to file important proofs of his disability. Attorneys move to dismiss. Outcome? Motion granted and then reversed on appeal. Is this just another reflexive dismissal of an unloved legal malpractice case?
Biro v Roth 2014…
Attorneys suing land surveyors and then getting sued by attorneys. It’s a circular story, which discusses contribution and indemnity. In the end defendant cannot pass off the liability to a third-party, and must answer to the plaintiff. Alva v Gaines, Gruner, Ponzini & Novick, LLP 2014 NY Slip Op 06785 Decided on October 8…
We have noted in the past that legal malpractice cases are negatively viewed. They are dismissed, either on a CPLR 3211 basis or a CPLR 3212 basis more often than other negligence cases, and often reflexively. Harris Beach PLLC v Eber Bros. Wine & Liq. Corp. 2014 NY Slip Op 06704
Decided on October…
In the recent past, a claim that attorney lied in motion papers filed seeking to be relieved as attorney has survived motion practice. This decision likely prodded plaintiff to bring Brady v Friedlander 2014 NY Slip Op 06677 Decided on October 2, 2014 Appellate Division, First Department. In this situation the First Department did not…
Estate brings action against its attorneys, who successfully move to dismiss in Surrogate’s Court on the basis that the action was not "brought during the administration of an estate." Does this doom the legal malpractice and overbilling suit? Is an overbilling suit duplicitive of the legal malpractice claims. The answer is "no" in both instances.…
As is true of many other things, this story started with mismanaged money. The original problem was exacerbated by mismanaged litigation. in Gordon v Barrett 2014 NY Slip Op 51431(U)
Decided on September 30, 2014 Supreme Court, Kings County Schmidt, J. plaintiff originally had money problems.
"Plaintiff Gloria Gordon (plaintiff [FN1] ) maintains that…
Privity, schmivity. The Appellate Division recently decided this legal malpractice case arising out of the intellectual property case involving the comic Buck Rogers. Does it matter whether the Trust actually hired the law firm? No. The Trust is liable anyway. Can the Trust sue for legal malpractice? No. The claims are too speculative.
Town of Amherst hires attorneys to represent them in the termination of an employee. Time goes by Things go wrong. Attorneys are hired again (rehired?) to continue to represent the Town. Time goes by. Attorneys are once again hired. When the case is finally lost, the Town sues the attorneys. Continuous representation?
A case arising in Erie County concerning activities in Syracuse, and all about a couple of law firms from Buffalo is being broken up and returned to Buffalo even after the New York County Commercial Division accepted the case.
Fidelity Natl. Tit. Ins. Co. v Altshuler Shaham Provident Funds Ltd. 2014 NY Slip Op…
