Dial Car Inc. v Kordonsky  2022 NY Slip Op 31067(U) March 31, 2022 Supreme Court, Kings County Docket Number: Index No. 521900/2021 Judge: Leon Ruchelsman is a case which has been brought previously and is now in its second amended complaint.  Supreme Court dismissed the claims against the attorneys as too old.

“The Tuch and Cohen defendants have moved pursuant to CPLR §3211 seeking to dismiss the plaintiff’s complaint on the grounds essentially that it does allege any cause of •action and that many of the claims are barred by the applicable statute of limitations.

The plaintiff is a black car livery service catering to high end clients in Brooklyn. The amended complaint alleges that the four members of the board of directors, Michael Kordortsky,
Jeffrey Goldberg, Alex Sulava and Michael Levin as well as their counsel defendant Tuch and Cohen essentially defrauded Dial and its shareholders and committed corporate waste. Specifically, the amended omplaint alleges the defendants looted a voucher savings program design eel as a retirement funds for shareholders. The amended complaint alleges nine causes of action, for fraud, waste and mismanagement; aiding and abetting fraud, conversion, unjust enrichment, compensation recovery, malpractice, disgorgement, breach of fiduciary duty and aiding and abetting a breach of fiduciary duty. A similar lawsuit was filed in 2015 seeking similar reliefs. These motions have now been filed.”

“Concerning the Tuch and Cohen defendants, the amended complaint does not allege any improper conduct engaged in by them at all. Paragraph 73 of the amended complaint states that “on July 6, 2010, GOLDBERG with the assistance of KORDONSKY, ATTORNEYS and specifically, defendant, Roberta Pike, LEVIN and SULAVA, was granted an amendment to his March 31, 2003, employment contract which, included a salary increase, retirement benefits and other various additional pecuniary benefit’ (id) and that such amemdment was done without majority shareholder approval pursuant to the by-laws (see, Amended Complaint, I74). The amended complaint argues that the Tuch and Cohen defendants drafted the by-laws in 2010 and were surely aware of the shareholder approval requirement. However, even if the allegations are true and constitute wrongdoing such wrongs occurred in 2010. It is well settled that legal malpractice causes of actions have a three year statute of limitations (CPLR §214 (6), Schrull v. Weis, 166 AD3d 829, 87 NYS3d 228 [2d Dept., 2018}). The events which give rise to any malpractice claims accrued more than three years before the filing of this action. Further, the remaining causes of action are only directed toward
corporate .officers and directors. There are no allegations the Tuch and Cohen defendants were corporate officers at all.”

 

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened…

Andrew Lavoott Bluestone has been an attorney for 40 years, with a career that spans criminal prosecution, civil litigation and appellate litigation. Mr. Bluestone became an Assistant District Attorney in Kings County in 1978, entered private practice in 1984 and in 1989 opened his private law office and took his first legal malpractice case.

Since 1989, Bluestone has become a leader in the New York Plaintiff’s Legal Malpractice bar, handling a wide array of plaintiff’s legal malpractice cases arising from catastrophic personal injury, contracts, patents, commercial litigation, securities, matrimonial and custody issues, medical malpractice, insurance, product liability, real estate, landlord-tenant, foreclosures and has defended attorneys in a limited number of legal malpractice cases.

Bluestone also took an academic role in field, publishing the New York Attorney Malpractice Report from 2002-2004.  He started the “New York Attorney Malpractice Blog” in 2004, where he has published more than 4500 entries.

Mr. Bluestone has written 38 scholarly peer-reviewed articles concerning legal malpractice, many in the Outside Counsel column of the New York Law Journal. He has appeared as an Expert witness in multiple legal malpractice litigations.

Mr. Bluestone is an adjunct professor of law at St. John’s University College of Law, teaching Legal Malpractice.  Mr. Bluestone has argued legal malpractice cases in the Second Circuit, in the New York State Court of Appeals, each of the four New York Appellate Divisions, in all four of  the U.S. District Courts of New York and in Supreme Courts all over the state.  He has also been admitted pro haec vice in the states of Connecticut, New Jersey and Florida and was formally admitted to the US District Court of Connecticut and to its Bankruptcy Court all for legal malpractice matters. He has been retained by U.S. Trustees in legal malpractice cases from Bankruptcy Courts, and has represented municipalities, insurance companies, hedge funds, communications companies and international manufacturing firms. Mr. Bluestone regularly lectures in CLEs on legal malpractice.

Based upon his professional experience Bluestone was named a Diplomate and was Board Certified by the American Board of Professional Liability Attorneys in 2008 in Legal Malpractice. He remains Board Certified.  He was admitted to The Best Lawyers in America from 2012-2019.  He has been featured in Who’s Who in Law since 1993.

In the last years, Mr. Bluestone has been featured for two particularly noteworthy legal malpractice cases.  The first was a settlement of an $11.9 million dollar default legal malpractice case of Yeo v. Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman which was reported in the NYLJ on August 15, 2016. Most recently, Mr. Bluestone obtained a rare plaintiff’s verdict in a legal malpractice case on behalf of the City of White Plains v. Joseph Maria, reported in the NYLJ on February 14, 2017. It was the sole legal malpractice jury verdict in the State of New York for 2017.

Bluestone has been at the forefront of the development of legal malpractice principles and has contributed case law decisions, writing and lecturing which have been recognized by his peers.  He is regularly mentioned in academic writing, and his past cases are often cited in current legal malpractice decisions. He is recognized for his ample writings on Judiciary Law § 487, a 850 year old statute deriving from England which relates to attorney deceit.