Legal malpractice, again.

The Second Department granted defendant's motion to dismiss the complaint alleging legal malpractice, in Asher v. Shlimbaum, which was decided on November 27, 2007. The underlying action was commenced to enforce an alleged oral contract regarding the conveyance of certain real property. The court said that plaintiff's actions in connection with the acquisition and maintenance of the property were not unequivocally referable to the alleged contract, pursuant to General Obligations Law § 5-703[4]), and so the alleged contract was barred by the statute of frauds and was unenforceable, pursuant to General Obligations Law § 5-703[3]). The court said that this was sufficient to show that plaintiff could not establish that he would have succeeded in the underlying action but for the defendant's failure to plead other legal theories in connection with the underlying action.