Title: J. Virgil Waggoner v. Kenneth A. Caruso

State: new-york

Issuer: New York Appellate Court

Document:

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This memorandum is uncorrected and subject to revision before
publication in the New York Reports.
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No. 145  SSM 17
J. Virgil Waggoner, et al.,
            Appellants,
        v.
Kenneth A. Caruso, et al.,
            Respondents.
Submitted by James J. Mahon, for appellants.
Submitted by Frederick B. Warder, III, for respondent
Caruso.
Submitted by E. Leo Milonas, for respondent Pillsbury
Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
MEMORANDUM:
The order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed,
with costs; and the certified question not answered upon the
ground that it is unnecessary.
The Appellate Division properly held that plaintiffs 
J. Virgil Waggoner and J.V.W. Investment Ltd. of Dominica did not
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SSM No. 17
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state a claim for legal malpractice insofar as they failed to
allege that, but for defendants’ alleged malpractice, they would
have successfully recovered the $10 million investment in an
underlying proceeding (see Davis v Klein, 88 NY2d 1008, 1009-1010
[1996]).  The court also properly dismissed plaintiffs’ claim in
this case for breach of fiduciary duty as duplicative of the
claim for legal malpractice.
*   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *
On review of submissions pursuant to section 500.11 of the Rules,
order affirmed, with costs, and certified question not answered
upon the ground that it is unnecessary, in a memorandum.  Chief
Judge Lippman and Judges Ciparick, Graffeo, Read, Smith, Pigott
and Jones concur.
Decided May 11, 2010