Judge tosses law firm's suit claiming client raised a ruckus, causing lost business
A Manhattan judge has tossed a lawsuit claiming an unhappy personal-injury client trespassed and defamed law firm managers during two visits to its office.
Judge Carol Edmead tossed the suit filed by the managers of the firm, Mertz, Bitelman & Associates, and also ordered the firm to pay a $519 malpractice judgment previously obtained by the client, Yonghan Dong. The New York Law Journal (sub. req.) has a story on the Aug. 18 ruling.
The suit by the law firm managers had claimed Dong twice came to the firm and harassed and insulted the law firm managers. Dong allegedly said the law firm was irresponsible, had caused him to lose his case, and would not allow him to see his lawyer. He also refused to leave until he saw the lawyer, the suit alleged. The visits disturbed firm clients, the suit said, causing it to lose business valued at a minimum of $87,000.
The firm claimed Dong was represented by a lawyer associated with the firm, who had added the law firm’s name to the retainer agreement without permission.
Dong, on the other hand, said he didn’t hear from the firm for long periods of time. When his lawyer told Dong he should contact the law firm because he no longer worked there, Dong says, he was unable to get satisfactory answers about his case. Dong sued the lawyer and the firm in October 2014, and obtained a civil judgment of $519.
Edmead said the suit by the firm’s managers had failed to specify the dates of the alleged defamation and trespass. Dong said the visits occurred before he filed his malpractice suit in October 2014. The law firm managers failed to defeat Dong’s evidence, requiring the suit to be dismissed for being filed too late, Edmead concluded.
Edmead also said said the managers’ trespass and defamation claims could have been raised as a defense or counterclaim in Dong’s malpractice suit, and the claims are barred under a theory of res judicata.
