A Manhattan appeals panel has upheld the dismissal of fraud and legal malpractice claims brought against a prominent Manhattan litigator, his current firm and two others where he had worked. However, the Appellate Division, First Department, disputed the lower court’s holding that a malpractice claim against one of his former firms was time-barred. Instead, it ruled that the statute of limitations was tolled while the attorney had continued to represent the plaintiff in the same matter, even though he had moved to a different law firm.
Retired Texas oil executive J. Virgil Waggoner sued Kenneth A. Caruso, a partner in the New York office of Bracewell & Giuliani, for allegedly conspiring in the theft of a $10 million investment the lawyer had been retained to recover. The suit also named Bracewell & Giuliani as a defendant, as well as Chadbourne & Parke and Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, the other firms at which Mr. Caruso worked. Mr. Waggoner had made his ill-fated investment through a Caribbean Bank, and his lawsuit claimed Mr. Caruso failed to aggressively pursue claims against the bank because he was aligned with the alleged fraud’s perpetrators.
