Claims Against Amlaw100 Firm Successfully Dismissed
On December 26, 2017, Rockland County Supreme Court Judge Thorsen dismissed breach of fiduciary duty, legal malpractice, fraud, fraudulent concealment, and aiding and abetting breach of fiduciary duty claims against an AmLaw 100 Law Firm we were privileged to represent.
The Plaintiff’s claims arose in connection with a failed real estate transaction involving plaintiff’s former trustees, and concerned the law firm’s alleged complicity in connection with that transaction. Because the Plaintiff had previously commenced a Chapter 11 proceeding, however, and did not list its potential malpractice claims as an asset in the bankruptcy action, we moved to dismiss the case in its entirety.
Judge Thorsen agreed. The Court observed that “a debtor’s failure to list a legal claim as an asset in a prior bankruptcy proceeding, which the party knew or should have known existed at the time of the proceeding, precludes the debtor from pursuing such claim on its own behalf inasmuch as the claim remains the property of the bankruptcy estate.” Against this backdrop, Judge Thorsen held “that Defendants’ motion to dismiss must be granted.”
