Traub Lieberman Straus & Shrewsberry LLP partner Jonathan R. Harwood successfully obtained summary judgment for his client in a legal malpractice action entitled Boca v. Goldberg, Scudieri, Lindenberg & Block, P.C., et al., in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, County of Kings.
July 08, 2010

Plaintiff instituted the legal malpractice action, alleging that the defendants failed to adequately represent her in a divorce settlement. According to plaintiff, the defendants failed to provide adequate advice with respect to the negotiation of the settlement agreement, were negligent in their handling of the parties’ compliance with the settlement agreement and failed to preserve the client’s rights under the settlement agreement. As a result, the plaintiff claimed she had suffered damages in excess of one million dollars. In granting summary judgment, the court first noted that the objective evidence clearly established that the defendants were not retained to represent plaintiff with respect to the negotiation of the divorce agreement. The court also rejected plaintiff’s claim that the defendants were negligent in sending an executed property deed to the attorney for the plaintiff’s ex-husband without first receiving the payment due under the agreement, finding that it was too speculative to conclude that the payment would have been made “but for” the actions of the defendants. The court also held that the defendants could not have foreseen that counsel would forward the deed to her client, in contravention of the instructions from defendants to hold the deed in escrow until the agreed to payment was made. Finally, the court rejected claims of negligence that plaintiff attempted to assert, for the first time, in her opposition to the motion for summary judgment.