Legal Malpractice

Relation-Back and Legal Malpractice

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

The  case of  Carl v. Cohen, Supreme Court, New York County, Justice Edmead 2009 NY Slip OP 30806(U), April 15, 2009 illustrates two distinct principals. The first is privilege and at issue communications and the second principal is relation-back and the statute of limitations.

The statute of limitations in legal malpractice is three years, pursuant to CPLR 214(6) An action may be commenced against a newly to-be added defendant if that newly related defendant is so closely related to prior defendants that there is no due process violation.

"Plaintiff now seeks to avoid the expiration of the statute of limitations by asserting that his belated adding of Greenberg as a defendant "relates back" to the commencement of this action, before the statute of limitations had run. The test for determining whether a claim asserted against a new party relates back to the date upon which the claim was interposed against the original named defendants is set forth in the case of Buran v. Coupal (87 NY2d 173, 178 [1995]). This test requires that the following three conditions be met:

(1) both claims arise out of same conduct, transaction or occurrence, (2) the party to be joined is united in interest with the original named defendant (s) and, by reason of that relationship, can be charged with notice of the commencement of the action so that the party to be joined will not be prejudiced in maintaining his or her defense due to the delay and (3) the party to be joined knew or should have known that, but for a mistake by the plaintiff as to the identity of the proper parties, the action would have been brought against him or her as well

(Matter of 27th St. Block Assn. v. Dormitory Auth. of State of N.Y., 302 AD2d 155, 163-164 [1st Dept 2002]; Buran v. Coupal, 87 NY2d at 181). "The burden is on the plaintiff to establish the applicability of the doctrine once a defendant has demonstrated that the statute of limitations has expired" (Nani v. Gould, 39 AD3d 508, 509 [2d Dept 2007]).

Here, plaintiff has met its burden to establish the applicability of the relation-back doctrine as to the first two prongs of the three-prong relation-back test. The asserted claims against Greenberg as Cohen's employer at the time of the alleged malpractice accrued, arise out of the same conduct, transaction or occurrence, and the two parties are united in interest. It should be noted that Greenberg has not challenged plaintiff's position that the first two prongs of the test have been established.

However, plaintiff has failed to establish the third element of the relation-back test, as he has not demonstrated that, but for an excusable mistake as to Greenberg's identity, the action would have been brought against Greenberg as well. "When a plaintiff intentionally decides not to assert a claim against a party known to be potentially liable, there has been no mistake . . . the plaintiff should not be given a second opportunity to assert that claim after the limitations period has expired" (Buran v. Coupal, 87 NY2d at 181)."

 

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on December 07, 2010 (boomark / email).