Complaints might be compared to a precision rifled single shot or to a shotgun, in which an ever-widening pattern of scatter shot is fired.  Complaints patterned on either might be successful, but Iwachiw v Bahr  2013 NY Slip Op 30283(U)  January 11, 2013  Supreme Court, New York County
Docket Number: 401546/2011  Judge: Lucy Billings chose the shotgun…

So many of these cases start over a fee.  Here, relatives try to push relatives out of a house (we guess it was bequeathed to both), and clients end up spending about $ 50,000 to avoid being put in the street.  Then, it comes time to pay the attorneys.  This leads to an attorney fee…

Not only did the defendants obtain dismissal, but the non-answering defendant obtained dismissal too.  Unfortunately the 2d Department decision in Siwiec v Rawlins 2013 NY Slip Op 00903 Decided on February 13, 2013  Appellate Division, Second Department did not explain its reasoning. The most that can be gleaned from this slender record is "Here, the complaint…

Plaintiff loses in Supreme Court, and dismissal is affirmed in the Appellate Division in this legal malpractice case.  Voutsas v Hochberg   2013 NY Slip Op 00803   Decided on February 7, 2013
Appellate Division, First Department  discusses the limits of the fraud discovery rule, as well as continuous representation.
 

"The fraud and breach of contract…

Justice Ritholtz of Supreme Court, Queens County lays the issue out in the first sentence of the decision in 150 Centreville, LLC v Lin Assoc. Architects, PC   2013 NY Slip Op 23038 Decided on February 6, 2013  Supreme Court, Queens County Ritholtz, J.    "The questions involved in this action are whether there should be any…

It’s medical malpractice which is something we don’t usually write about, but Justice Schlesinger’s opinion in this medical malpractice summary judgment opinion is well worth reading.  Balzola v Giese  2013 NY Slip Op 30324(U)  February 5, 2013  Supreme Court, New York County  Docket Number: 114205/2009  Judge: Alice Schlesinger slowly and thoroughly works it way through…

Hsu v Liu & Shields LLP  2013 NY Slip Op 30291(U)  February 7, 2013  Sup Ct, New York County
Docket Number: 400781/12  Judge: Richard F. Braun is the story of how one set of plaintiffs lost this case twice, in fact three times.  Plaintiff is pro-se, and complains that he and other plaintiffs were the…

In Balkheimer v Spanton   2013 NY Slip Op 00715   Decided on February 6, 2013   Appellate Division, Second Department   we see two law firms, and their stellar legal malpractice defense attorneys fighting over who is more responsible to plaintiff.  In a situation such as this, we see the unusual (but not unprecedented) comedy of legal…