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Bey v. Flushing Hospital Medical Center
Citations: 95 A.D.3d 1152; 945 N.Y.S.2d 128
Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York; May 23, 2012; New York; State Appellate Court
In the legal malpractice case involving defendant Breitner Hoffman, P.C., the Supreme Court of Queens County denied the defendant's motion for summary judgment, allowing the complaint against it to proceed. The court ruled that under CPLR 1018, the plaintiff could continue the action despite having assigned his legal malpractice claim to another party, as no substitution order was required. To establish legal malpractice, a plaintiff must show that the attorney did not exercise reasonable skill and knowledge, and that this failure proximately caused actual damages. The plaintiff must demonstrate that he would have succeeded in the underlying action or avoided damages but for the attorney's negligence. The defendant argued for summary judgment, asserting that the plaintiff could not prove essential elements of the malpractice claim. However, the court found that the defendant failed to demonstrate that the plaintiff could not establish actual damages or that the defendant's actions did not proximately cause the plaintiff's injury. Consequently, the Supreme Court's denial of the defendant's motion for summary judgment was affirmed, with the justices concurring that the defendant's other arguments were without merit.