Allegations of a “Conspiracty to Commit Fraud” Survived a Motion for Summary Judgment/Conspiracy Allegations Must Connect Individual Defendants with an Actionable Underlying Tort

The Second Department determined Supreme Court properly refused to grant summary judgment in favor of an attorney in an action based upon serious allegations of malpractice in connection with a real estate transaction.  Amony other allegations, it was claimed that the attorney allowed an employee to pose as him and caused the plaintiffs to (unknowingly)  sign documents accepting the premises as is. In affirming Supreme Court’s finding that a question of fact had been raised about the “conspiracy to commit fraud” allegations, the Second Department explained the nature of a civil conspiracy:

“New York does not recognize civil conspiracy to commit a tort . . . as an independent cause of action” … . However, “a plaintiff may plead the existence of a conspiracy in order to connect the actions of the individual defendants with an actionable, underlying tort and establish that those actions were part of a common scheme” … . “The allegation of conspiracy carries no greater burden, but also no less, than to assert adequately common action for a common purpose by common agreement or understanding among a group, from which common responsibility derives. Therefore, under New York law, [i]n order to properly plead a cause of action to recover damages for civil conspiracy, the plaintiff must allege a cognizable tort, coupled with an agreement between the conspirators regarding the tort, and an overt action in furtherance of the agreement. A bare conclusory allegation of conspiracy is usually held insufficient”… . Blanco v Polanco, 2014 NY Slip Op 02735, 2nd Dept 4-23-14