Lincoln Place, LLC v RVP Consulting, Inc.
2010 NY Slip Op 01587 [70 AD3d 594]
February 25, 2010
Appellate Division, First Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Wednesday, March 31, 2010


Lincoln Place, LLC, Plaintiff,
v
RVP Consulting, Inc., et al., Defendants. Robert Peters et al., Third-Party Plaintiffs-Appellants, v Michael E. Pekofsky, Esq., Third-Party Defendant-Respondent.

[*1] The Law Firm of Allen Bodner, New York (Allen Bodner of counsel), for appellants.

Wilson, Elser, Moskowitz, Edelman & Dicker LLP, White Plains (Jennifer Alampi of counsel), for respondent.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Shirley Werner Kornreich, J.), entered July 2, 2009, which denied third-party plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment and granted third-party defendant's cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the third-party complaint, unanimously affirmed, with costs.

The third-party complaint alleging legal malpractice is time-barred, the action having been commenced more than three years after the malpractice was committed (CPLR 214 [6]; Ackerman v Price Waterhouse, 84 NY2d 535, 541 [1994]). Third-party defendant Pekofsky negotiated a lease on behalf of third-party plaintiffs RVP Consulting and Robert Peters (collectively, Peters), as tenants, in 1997. He then assigned the lease, rather than designating a lessee, thereby causing Peters, pursuant to the terms of the lease, to remain liable for the full performance of all the tenant's obligations thereunder. In 1998, the assignee defaulted in its rent obligations, triggering Peters's liability for the outstanding rent. This action was not commenced until 2002.

Contrary to Peters's contention, an adjudication of the meaning of Pekofsky's 1997 letter was not a prerequisite to the existence of an actionable injury. Indeed, while Peters may not have been aware until 2001 or 2002 that Pekofsky's actions could result in liability, it is not the date on which Peters learned that malpractice had occurred, but the date on which the malpractice was committed, that is relevant (West Vil. Assoc. Ltd. Partnership v Balber Pickard Battistoni [*2]Maldonado & Ver Dan Tuin, PC, 49 AD3d 270, 270 [2008]). Peters's subjective belief that Pekofsky had designated a lessee rather than assigning the lease is of no consequence. Concur—Mazzarelli, J.P., Saxe, Acosta, DeGrasse and Manzanet-Daniels, JJ.