Gelobter v Fox
2011 NY Slip Op 09269 [90 AD3d 832]
December 20, 2011
Appellate Division, Second Department
Published by New York State Law Reporting Bureau pursuant to Judiciary Law § 431.
As corrected through Friday, May 11, 2012


Ellen Gelobter, Appellant-Respondent,
v
Aryeh Fox, Also Known as Christian Fox, et al., Defendants, Alisa Schiff, Esq., et al., Respondents, and Michael Gross, Esq., Respondent-Appellant. G. Alexander Novak, Nonparty Appellant-Respondent.

—[*1] 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.

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 nonparty appellant-respondent 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 (90 AD3d 829 [2011] [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.