Fraud Claim Not Dismissed

The New York Appellate Division for the Second Judicial Department held that a legal malpractice case, which involved claims relating to a Florida easement, was time-barred. However, claims of fraud survive:

… the Supreme Court properly denied that branch of the defendants’ motion…which was to dismiss the cause of action alleging fraud as duplicative of the legal malpractice cause of action. As alleged in the complaint, the fraud cause of action was based upon tortious conduct independent of the alleged malpractice, i.e., an alleged misrepresentation as to the eligibility of the defendant [attorney] to practice law in the State of Florida, and the plaintiffs alleged that damages flowed from this distinct conduct…

(Mike Frisch)