Tenant's Attorney Disqualified from Loft Proceeding

June 30, 1993

LVT Number: 7064

Five tenants sued landlord in a loft board proceeding. All tenants were represented by the same law firm. They eventually reached a settlement with landlord. Shortly afterwards, the law firm they'd hired went out of business. Later, one tenant sought to set aside the Loft Board settlement. He hired a lawyer who'd been a senior partner in the old law firm. The four other tenants claimed that this lawyer should be disqualified from the case. Tenant and his lawyer claimed that the lawyer didn't work directly on the prior case. The court ruled against tenant.

Five tenants sued landlord in a loft board proceeding. All tenants were represented by the same law firm. They eventually reached a settlement with landlord. Shortly afterwards, the law firm they'd hired went out of business. Later, one tenant sought to set aside the Loft Board settlement. He hired a lawyer who'd been a senior partner in the old law firm. The four other tenants claimed that this lawyer should be disqualified from the case. Tenant and his lawyer claimed that the lawyer didn't work directly on the prior case. The court ruled against tenant. His lawyer was a supervising partner in the old firm and was responsible for overseeing his firm's work in the original case. Tenant's attorney was disqualified.

In re Obenhaus: NYLJ, p. 23, col. 3 (6/24/93) (App. Div. 1 Dept.; Sullivan, JP, Rosenberger, Asch, Ross, JJ)

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