Gelobter v Fox

Gelobter v Fox 2011 NY Slip Op 09269 Decided on December 20, 2011 Appellate Division, Second Department Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. This opinion is uncorrected and subject to revision before publication in the Official Reports.

Decided on December 20, 2011
SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW YORKAPPELLATE DIVISION : SECOND JUDICIAL DEPARTMENT
PETER B. SKELOS, J.P.
RUTH C. BALKIN
RANDALL T. ENG
SANDRA L. SGROI, JJ.
2011-00484
(Index No. 11416/08)

[*1]Ellen Gelobter, plaintiff-appellant-respondent,

v

Aryeh Fox, etc., et al., defendants, Alisa Schiff, etc., et al., respondents, Michael Gross, etc., respondent- appellant; G. Alexander Novak, nonparty-appellant- respondent.




Novak Juhase & Stern, LLP, Cedarhurst, N.Y. (G. Alexander
Novak, nonparty-appellant-respondent pro se, and Kim Steven
Juhase of counsel), for plaintiff-appellant-respondent and nonparty-
appellant-respondent.
Rosenberg Calica & Birney, LLP, Garden City, N.Y. (William
J. Birney of counsel), for respondent-
appellant.
L'Abbate, Balkan, Colavita & Contini, LLP, Garden City, N.Y.
(William T. McCaffery of counsel), for
respondents Alisa Schiff and Schiff &
Skurnik, PLLC.


DECISION & ORDER

In an action, inter alia, to recover damages for legal malpractice, the plaintiff and the nonparty, G. Alexander Novak, appeal from an order of the Supreme Court, Nassau County (Marber, J.), dated January 6, 2011, which, upon stated portions of an order of the same court entered May 6, 2010, awarded costs in the form of attorney fees in the sums of $15,000 to the defendant Michael Gross, $7,500 to L'Abbate, Balkin, Colavita & Contini, and $2,500 to the defendant Jared W. Beschel, payable by the nonparty G. Alexander Novak, and directed G. Alexander Novak to pay the sum of $500 to the Lawyers' Fund for Client Protection as a sanction, and the defendant Michael Gross cross-appeals from so much of the same order as awarded him the sum of only $15,000.

ORDERED that the appeal and the cross appeal are dismissed, with one bill of costs to the payable by the respondent-appellant and the respondents appearing separately and filing separate briefs.

The appeal by the plaintiff must be dismissed, as she is not aggrieved by the order (see CPLR 5511). The appeal by the nonparty G. Alexander Novak and the cross appeal must be dismissed as academic in light of our determination in Gelobter v Fox (_______AD3d_______, Appellate Division Docket No. 2010-05745 [decided herewith]), in which the order before us on this appeal and cross appeal is being vacated.

We decline Gross's request for the imposition of sanctions against the plaintiff and her attorneys pursuant to 22 NYCRR 130—1.1 in connection with this appeal and cross appeal.
SKELOS, J.P., BALKIN, ENG and SGROI, JJ., concur.

ENTER:

Aprilanne Agostino

Clerk of the Court