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Legal Malpractice

: New York Attorney Malpractice Blog

Mixed Result in Landlord-tenant Legal Malpractice Case

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

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Landlord hires big-time Landlord-Tenant attorneys in New York City, and expect that the attorneys are in fact bringing a series of eviction proceedings. This case alleges that they did not, yet charged fees, and misled the client. What is a client to do? In this instance they sued for legal malpractice, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, breach of contract, etc. Justice Joan Madden of Supreme Court, New York County decided a CPLR 3211 motion to dismiss in Cayuga Capital Mgt. LLC v, Borah Goldstein.

The fraudulent inducement, fraudulent misrepresentation and negligence claims were all trimmed as duplicitive of a potential legal malpractice case. Justice Madden reasoned that they were based upon the same facts, and sought the same damages, and thus were duplicates of the potential legal malpractice.

More interesting was plaintiff's invocation of Ulico v. Wilson Elser, 56 AD1 (1st Dept, 2008), That case has been the center of a growing number of "breach of fiduciary duty" cases, and supports a claim for such a breach. Here, in a footnote, Justice Madden disposes of reliance upon Ulico.

The legal malpractice action was dismissed without prejudice, allowing plaintiff to amend and demonstrate the "but for" aspects of the eviction cases. Presumably, if the evictions are now in process, claims for damage will be limited to the delays, and not for a permanent loss of the ability to evict.

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on September 23, 2009 (boomark / email).