Case Name: Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler L. L. P., Plaintiff and Third-Party Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Bond Street Associates, Ltd., Defendant. Robert Cinque et al., Third-Party Defendants-Appellants, et al., Third-Party Defendant
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1999-11-23
Citations: 266 A.D.2d 125
Docket Number: 
Parties: Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler L. L. P., Plaintiff and Third-Party Plaintiff-Respondent, v Bond Street Associates, Ltd., Defendant. Robert Cinque et al., Third-Party Defendants-Appellants, et al., Third-Party Defendant.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 266
Pages: 125–125

Head Matter:
Patterson, Belknap, Webb & Tyler L. L. P., Plaintiff and Third-Party Plaintiff-Respondent, v Bond Street Associates, Ltd., Defendant. Robert Cinque et al., Third-Party Defendants-Appellants, et al., Third-Party Defendant.
[699 NYS2d 11]

Opinion:
—Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward Lehner, J.), entered October 23, 1998, which denied third-party defendants' motion to dismiss the third-party complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211 (a) (7), unanimously affirmed, without costs.
The motion court properly determined that the third-party complaint, alleging, inter alia, that third-party defendant attorneys directed the legal handling of matters in which third-party plaintiff law firm represented defendant, and, accordingly, shared responsibility for any loss defendant may have incurred in those matters by reason of legal malpractice, sufficiently stated a cause of action for contribution (see, Schauer v Joyce, 54 NY2d 1; see also, Raquet v Braun, 90 NY2d 177, 183). Third-party defendants' argument, that they were acting as agents for a disclosed principal, and not as co-counsel for plaintiff, does not warrant a different conclusion in the circumstances presented on this CPLR 3211 (a) (7) motion (see, Rovello v Orofino Realty Co., 40 NY2d 633, 635).
We have considered third-party defendants-appellants' other arguments and find them unavailing. Concur — Sullivan, J. P., Wallach, Rubin, Saxe and Friedman, JJ.