Legal Malpractice

Bare Knuckle Politics and Legal Malpractice in New Jersey

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

Town buys property previously owned by bus company. They plan to remediate the property, and turn it into a park.  Town's Attorney is Democratic.  Town board is Republican majority, soon to change after election.  Result?  Attorney is potentially a legal malpractice defendant, solely dependent on whether Republicans or Democrats have the majority.

The Story, found at MyCentralJersey.com, is as follows:

"Just weeks before the Borough Council's political majority switches from Republican to Democrat, the Republicans next week are planning to hire a lawyer to sue former Borough Attorney Patrick J. Diegnan for malpractice.  The Republicans have placed a resolution on the agenda for the council's Monday, Dec. 8 meeting that would hire Somerville attorney Peter A. Ouda to represent the borough in the potential lawsuit against Diegnan. Diegnan was borough attorney for 25 years before retiring that post in 2007. He also is a Democratic state assemblyman and chair of the borough's Democratic organization.

Council President Robert Bengivenga Jr., a Republican, said the grounds for the malpractice suit are Diegnan's handling of a 2006 borough land purchase. Environmental reports showed the land — last used as a bus depot — was contaminated and could cost up to $450,000 to clean up. The land was purchased for $750,000 using funds from the Middlesex County Open Space Trust Fund. Seventy-five thousand dollars of the purchase price was set aside for environmental remediation. The borough signed a hold-harmless agreement absolving the former owner of the land, Suburban Transit Corp., of any liability for the contamination.

Bengivenga said the borough overpaid for the property because he said the appraisal that valued the land at $700,000 was contingent upon the land being clean. He said the borough should not have signed the hold-harmless agreement, and violated state statute by purchasing the land without passing an ordinance.

Bengivenga and fellow Republican Matthew Anesh lost re-election campaigns in November. When their victorious Democratic challengers are sworn in next month, the Democrats will have a 4-2 majority on the council. Bengivenga said the Republicans are acting now to stop the Democrats."
 

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on December 08, 2008 (boomark / email).