Opinion
June 16, 1998
Appeal from the Supreme Court, New York County (Richard Braun, J.).
Plaintiff's allegations that he was arrested as a result of defendants' incorrect advice that he was entitled to repossess the medallions from his lessee is flatly contradicted by documentary evidence (see, Mark Hampton, Inc. v. Bergreen, 173 A.D.2d 220) that plaintiff was arrested for third degree robbery and impersonating a police officer. Nowhere in the record does plaintiff claim that defendants advised plaintiff that he could repossess the medallions in that manner. Concerning plaintiff's claim that defendants, in continuing to represent him in the action brought by the lessee for return of the medallions when a member of defendants' firm had been named a codefendant, acted in their own self-interest in advising him to settle that action, and that he settled the action because of defendants' "negligence, coercion and acquiescence", the IAS Court correctly perceived that redress could not be granted on the theory that settlement was effectively compelled by any mistakes by defendants in defending the action. Plaintiff's allegation that the civil action brought by the lessee lacked merit is insufficient to show that the advice to settle was not reasonable (cf., Bernstein v. Oppenheim Co., 160 A.D.2d 428, 430).
Concur — Williams, J. P., Tom, Mazzarelli and Andrias, JJ.