JOSEPH KLEINPLATZ plf-ap, v. NATHAN L. DEMBIN & ASSOCIATES, P.C. def-res, TOMMY H. BREWER, JR., def

2576. JOSEPH KLEINPLATZ plf-ap, v. NATHAN L. DEMBIN & ASSOCIATES, P.C. def-res, TOMMY H. BREWER, JR., def — Jonathan M. Landsman, New York (Jonathan M. Landsman of counsel), for ap — Aaronson, Rappaport, Feinstein & Deutsch, LLP, New York (Robert S. Deutsch of counsel), for res — Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Shlomo Hagler, J.), entered June 10, 2015, dismissing the complaint pursuant to an order, same court and Justice, entered March 24, 2015, unanimously affirmed, on the ground of judicial estoppel.

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2576. JOSEPH KLEINPLATZ plf-ap, v. NATHAN L. DEMBIN & ASSOCIATES, P.C. def-res, TOMMY H. BREWER, JR., def — Jonathan M. Landsman, New York (Jonathan M. Landsman of counsel), for ap — Aaronson, Rappaport, Feinstein & Deutsch, LLP, New York (Robert S. Deutsch of counsel), for res — Judgment, Supreme Court, New York County (Shlomo Hagler, J.), entered June 10, 2015, dismissing the complaint pursuant to an order, same court and Justice, entered March 24, 2015, unanimously affirmed, on the ground of judicial estoppel.

Plaintiff’s prolonged failure to disclose the instant lawsuit to the bankruptcy court renders him judicially estopped from pursuing the claim (Koch v. National Basketball Assn., 245 AD2d 230, 230-231 [1st Dept 1997]; Becerril v. City of N.Y. Dept. of Health & Mental Hygiene, 110 AD3d 517, 519 [1st Dept 2013], lv denied 23 NY3d 905 [2014]). While the error initially may not have been intentional, as plaintiff had not commenced the legal malpractice claim when he filed his Chapter 13 petition, and was pro se at the time and may not have known that he was required to disclose such a suit, he failed to disclose the lawsuit to the bankruptcy court even after he commenced it, even after he retained bankruptcy counsel, and even after defendants cited the failure to disclose it in an unsuccessful summary judgment motion made years earlier, in June 2011. Thus, plaintiff’s ongoing failure to correct the omission suggests it was not merely a good faith mistake or unintentional (compare Murray, 248 BR at 487; United States v. Hussein, 178 F3d 125, 130 [2d Cir 1999]).

JOSEPH KLEINPLATZ plf-ap, v. NATHAN L. DEMBIN & ASSOCIATES, P.C. def-res, TOMMY H. BREWER, JR., def

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