Oak Forest Products, Inc. v. Hiscock & Barclay, LLP

114 F. Supp. 3d 76, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91080, 2015 WL 4241405
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. New York
DecidedJuly 14, 2015
DocketNo. 12-CV-6453L
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 114 F. Supp. 3d 76 (Oak Forest Products, Inc. v. Hiscock & Barclay, LLP) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oak Forest Products, Inc. v. Hiscock & Barclay, LLP, 114 F. Supp. 3d 76, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91080, 2015 WL 4241405 (W.D.N.Y. 2015).

Opinion

DECISION and ORDER

DAVID LARIMER, District Judge.

INTRODUCTION

This action arises from legal malpractice allegations against defendant Hiscock & Barclay LLP (“Hiscock & Barclay”) related to its representation of Oak Forest [78]*78Products, Inc. (“OFP”), .OFP’s -Taiwanese sister corporation Oak Forest Products, Inc. (Taiwan) (“OFP-Taiwan”), OFP President and sole owner Thomas Cartwright (“Cartwright”) and OFP-Tajwan President and sole owner Michael Lai (“Lai”), concerning certain copyright and patent matters. On March 4, 2015 (Dkt. # 138), the Court denied a motion by Hiscock- & Barclay (Dkt. # 108) for summary judgment dismissing the claims against it. Specifically, the Court found that: (1) the plaintiffs’ settlement of copyright and patent claims in a related action did not foreclose them from pursuing malpractice claims for pre-litigation .conduct by Hiscock & Barclay, particularly because there was evidence that the settlement of the underlying. litigation was caused in part by the firm’s alleged negligence, which diniinished the potential damages recoverable; (2) there were material questions of fact as to whether plaintiffs suffered actual damages as a result of defendants’ negligence; and (3) there were material questions of fact as to whether OFP-Taiwan, and individual plaintiffs Cartwright and Lai, had standing to allege malpractice claims against His-cock & Barclay.

Hiscock & Barclay now moves for reconsideration of that Decision and Order pursuant to Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 59(e) and Rule 7(d)(3) of the Local Rules of Civil Procedure, and in the alternative, requests certification of an interlocutory appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1292(b). For the reasons that' follow, that motion (Dkt. # 140) is denied.

DISCUSSION

I. Motion for Reconsideration and Reargument

“Generally, motions for reconsideration-are not granted unless the moving party can point to controlling decisions or data'that the court overlooked — matters, in other words, that might reasonably be expected to alter the conclusion reached by the court.” Cioce v. County of Westchester, 128 Fed.Appx. 181, 185 (2d Cir.2005) (unpublished opinion). A eourt may, in its discretion, reconsider its previous ruling if: “(1) there is an intervening change in the controlling law; (2) new evidence not previously available comes to light; or (3) it becomes necessary to remedy a clear error of law or to prevent obvious injustice.” U.S. v. Billini, 2006 WL 3457834 at *1 (S.D.N.Y.2006). “New evidence” is evidence that was unavailable to the movant when the Court made its previous ruling, and that could not have been found by due diligence. See Frankel v. City of New York, 2009 WL 4037818 at *1 (S.D.N.Y. 2009). See also Hines v. Overstock.com, Inc., 380 Fed.Appx. 22, 25 (2d Cir.2010) (unpublished opinion). Thus, while reconsideration is appropriate where necessary to correct for “clear error” or to “prevent manifest injustice,” Munafo v. Metro. Transp. Auth., 381 F.3d 99, 105 (2d Cir.2004), it should not be employed merely as a means to reargue that which was previously decided. See Shrader v. CSX Transp., 70 F.3d 255, 257 (2d Cir.1995). Under these standards, theré is no basis for this Court to reconsider its prior decision.

Initially, Hiscock & Barclay contends that the Court erred by “inserting facts not in the record” when it stated that plaintiffs are claiming that they were compelled to settle the underlying action because of Hiscock & Barclay’s negligence, because the plaintiffs “never actually alleged factual allegations ... in support of this claim.” ‘ (Dkt. # 146 at 4). While Hiscock & Barclay is correct that plaintiffs’ original and amended complaints do not overtly contain such allegations, the fact that - plaintiffs did not articulate the compelled settlement theory in their pleadings does not bar them from assérting it [79]*79now. Indeed, the idea that Hiscock & Barclay’s alleged malpractice created some motivation to settle the matter follows logically from plaintiffs’ allegations in the Amended Complaint in this malpractice action that Hiscock & Barclay’s pre-litigation malpractice had “severely” and irreversibly diminished the scope of recoverable damages' in the related action. (Dkt. # 55-1 at ¶ 41). In any event, this Court’s analysis of the underlying motion was not limited to the four corners of the amended complaint in the first instance, since the motion was one for summary judgment.

Hiscock & Barclay also contends that the “case law relied on by this Court in denying H & B’s motion for summary judgment expressly holds that a litigant must allege that an underlying settlement was compelled by his former counsel’s negligence.” (Dkt. # 146 at 2, emphasis in original) (citing Lattimore v. Bergman, 224 A.D.2d 497, 497, 637 N.Y.S.2d 777 (2d Dept.1996); Benishai v. Epstein, 116 A.D.3d 726, 728 (2d Dept.2014)). The firm’s characterization of the holdings in these cases is mistaken. The Benishai court made no “express[ ]” holding that a compelled settlement theory must be stated'in a complaint or else waived: it merely spoke in terms of the sufficiency of factual allegations in the underlying pleading because it addressed a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim pursuant to N.Y. CPLR 3211(d), which limited the court’s analysis to the four corners of the complaint. The Lattimore decision addressed, as this Court did, a motion for summary judgment. It not only made no holding resembling that which Hiscock & Barclay describes, but to the contrary, held that summary judgment should be denied where, as here, the record contains “issues of fact as to ... whether [plaintiffs] freely elected to settle their ... action.” Lattimore, 224 A.D.2d at 497, 637 N.Y.S.2d 777.

Other New York courts addressing, motions for summary judgment in malpractice cases involving potentially -compelled settlements have not questioned or even mentioned whether the theory was alleged in the complaint, but have focused, appropriately, upon whether "the record presents factual questions with regard to whether plaintiff was compelled to settle.” Schrowang v. Biscone, 128 A.D.3d 1162, 1162 (3d Dept.2015) (emphasis added). See also Shapiro v. Butler, 273 A.D.2d 657, 660, 709 N.Y.S.2d 687 (3d Dept.2000) (“inasmuch as the record fails to establish as a matter of law that plaintiffs voluntarily settled the -... action and were not effectively compelled to do so by defendants’ negligence, plaintiffs’ settlement of that action does not entitle defendants to summary judgment dismissing the legal malpractice claim”) (emphasis added). Accordingly, the sufficiency of plaintiffs factual allegations was, and is, not at issue.

Hiscock & Barclay also argues that regardless of whether the plaintiffs ever alleged a compelled settlement, the plaintiffs “never ... presented any evidence in support of [the compelled1 settlement theory],” and that the' Court’s findings therefore lacked a basis in the record. (Dkt. # 146 at 4).

The record suggests otherwise.

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114 F. Supp. 3d 76, 2015 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 91080, 2015 WL 4241405, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oak-forest-products-inc-v-hiscock-barclay-llp-nywd-2015.