Opinion
November 23, 1999
Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Edward Lehner, J.), entered October 23, 1998, which denied third-party defendants' motion to dismiss the third-party complaint pursuant to CPLR 3211(a)(7), unanimously affirmed, without costs.
John D. Winter, for Third-Party Plaintiff-Respondent.
SULLIVAN J.P., WALLACH, RUBIN, SAXE, FRIEDMAN, JJ.
The motion court properly determined that the third-party complaint, alleging, inter alia, that third-party defendant attorneys directed the legal handling of matters in which third-party plaintiff law firm represented defendants, and, accordingly, shared responsibility for any loss defendants may have incurred in those matters by reason of legal malpractice, sufficiently stated a cause of action for contribution (see,Schauer v. Joyce, 54 N.Y.2d 1; see also, Raquet v. Braun, 90 N.Y.2d 177, 183). Third-party defendants' argument, that they were acting as agents for a disclosed principal, and not as co-counsel for plaintiff, does not warrant a different conclusion in the circumstances presented on this CPLR 3211(a)(7) motion (see,Rovello v. Orofino Realty Co., 40 N.Y.2d 633, 635).
We have considered third-party defendants-appellants' other arguments and find them unavailing.
THIS CONSTITUTES THE DECISION AND ORDER OF SUPREME COURT, APPELLATE DIVISION, FIRST DEPARTMENT.