| Hodges v Safe Coach, Inc. |
| 2008 NY Slip Op 50392(U) [18 Misc 3d 140(A)] |
| Decided on January 15, 2008 |
| Appellate Term, Second Department |
| Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431. |
| This opinion is uncorrected and will not be published in the printed Official Reports. |
Appeals from orders of the Civil Court of the City of New York, Kings County (Eileen
Nadelson, J.), entered February 4, 2005 and March 21, 2005. The order entered February 4, 2005
apportioned 80% of the attorney's contingency fee to nonparty-respondent Michael J. Orlofsky
and 20% of the fee to nonparty-appellant Bruce S. Reznick. The order entered March 21, 2005
granted nonparty-appellant's motion for reargument and, upon reargument, adhered to the prior
determination.
Appeals dismissed.
The order entered February 4, 2005 was superseded by the order entered March 21, 2005. The appeal from the order entered March 21, 2005 must be dismissed because the right of direct appeal therefrom terminated with the entry of the judgment on May 26, 2005 (see Matter of Aho, 39 NY2d 241 [1976]).
We are cognizant of the fact that an order was entered in the court below on March 13, [*2]2007 which vacated the order entered February 4, 2005 and, in effect, modified the order entered March 21, 2005 and the judgment entered May 26, 2005.
We further note that had the issues raised on appeal concerning the apportionment of legal fees been properly before us, we would have affirmed since the apportionment was based on such factors as the amount of time spent on the entire case, the quality of the service, the nature of the work performed and the relative contributions of the respective attorneys towards the results obtained (Malerba v Clifford, 18 AD3d 451 [2005]; Martin v Feltingoff, 7 AD3d 467 [2004]). At the hearing conducted by the lower court on the issue of legal fees, nonparty-appellant Bruce S. Reznick did not appear and the evidence submitted in support of his claim was limited at best.
Weston Patterson, J.P., Golia and Belen, JJ., concur.
Decision Date: January 15, 2008