A Bergen County jury returned a $343,258 verdict Wednesday in a legal malpractice suit claiming attorney Robert Lysiak failed to warn about potential environmental contamination on a property purchased by his client.

The jury returned its verdict in a lawsuit brought by John Patalano after a three-day trial before Superior Court Judge Robert Wilson. The jury verdict represents the damages Patalano incurred due to the contamination—roughly $203,000 to retain an environmental lawyer, Howard Davis, and another $139,000 on cleanup of the property, said plaintiffs lawyer Kenneth Thyne of Roper & Thyne in Totowa. Thyne tried the case but his law partner, Angela Roper, assisted with preparation.

Patalano was seeking to open a Domino's pizza franchise when he retained Lysiak in September 1998 in connection with the purchase of a site in Dumont. At the time, the property included a small commercial building that was being used as a pizzeria. A liability expert testified for Patalano that Lysiak should have recommended conducting a test to detect the presence of underground storage tanks before buying the property, said Thyne.

He saw no need to conduct any inspections because he intended to gut the building and replace its wiring and mechanical systems, Thyne said. Five underground tanks were discovered after Patalano purchased the property, which was previously a gas station, said Thyne.

The regulatory process relating to the cleanup of the leaky tanks took nearly 20 years, and the state Department of Environmental Protection did not declare the project complete until 2019, said Thyne. Patalano entered an agreement with Lysiak to suspend the statute of limitations from 2004 to 2017. Lysiak previously had a solo practice in Emerson but is now retired.

"We expect that the court will award attorney's fees and interest which will more than double the verdict," with interest likely to be significant because so many years have passed since the events leading up to the suit, said Thyne.

Lysiak testified that his practice focused on residential real estate transactions, and he rarely got involved in commercial real estate, according to a plaintiff's liability expert report issued by Denville attorney Barry Levine. Lysiak testified that he had no written retainer agreement or written description of the scope of his representation of Patalano, Levine said.

Levine said Lysiak failed to look into the existence of underground tanks on the property despite disclaimers on that issue that he received from his client's mortgage lender and from a surveyor.

Lawyers have a duty to ascertain their clients' level of sophistication and to tailor their advice to that level, but Lysiak admitted he did not know if Patalano had ever purchased commercial real estate before, said Levine. Patalano had never purchased any other property besides his own home when he bought the property in question, and he was in the pizza business, so he lacked sufficient knowledge to know he should investigate contamination of the property, Levine said.

During the trial, Lysiak's lawyer, Christopher Carey of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter in Newark, asserted that Patalano was a sophisticated businessman who did not need a lawyer to tell him to check for underground contamination before buying the property, according to Thyne. Carey also asserted that Lysiak's inclusion in the sales contract of a provision giving Patalano the right to have the property inspected was sufficient, Thyne said.

Defense lawyer Carey did not respond to requests for a comment on the verdict.