Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Richard Lowe, III, J.), entered October 8, 2002, which, to the extent appealed from, denied plaintiff’s motion for a conditional order pursuant to CELR 3126 striking defendant’s answer and counterclaims and for a default judgment and granted defendant’s cross motion for summary judgment dismissing the complaint, unanimously modified, on the law, the cross motion denied, the complaint reinstated and the matter remanded for further proceedings, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.
This action arises out of a business investment by plaintiff in a publicly traded company. According to the complaint, on July 30, 1998, plaintiff met defendant through a mutual friend, nonparty Ira Kanarick. At that time, defendant was an officer at RAS Securities Corp.
Consequently, plaintiff loaned $300,000 to The Forgotten Woman. In exchange, The Forgotten Woman executed a promissory note, drafted by defendant, payable to plaintiff which matured on November 30, 1998. The note identified The Forgotten Woman as the sole borrower and designated RAS as the agent to hold certain securities as collateral in escrow. The Forgotten Woman subsequently defaulted on the loan and declared bankruptcy.
Plaintiff further alleges that he repeatedly contacted defendant about the default. Each time, plaintiff avers, defendant told him not to worry about the debt, that it was secured by the collateral, and that, in any event, defendant would make good on the debt. However, there was no security for the debt, and defendant does not deny that he knew all along that the securities to be escrowed were never delivered to RAS.
Plaintiff also alleges he and defendant then orally agreed that plaintiff would forbear from suing either defendant or The Forgotten Woman if defendant personally paid the debt. Thereafter, defendant paid plaintiff $35,000 and caused his company Hayward Lake Funding Service to transfer 150,000 shares of stock to plaintiff. Plaintiff contends defendant made these payments and stock transfers to pay part of the debt. Defendant maintains there was no oral agreement, and claims he paid these monies only because plaintiff sent “thugs” to intimidate and threaten him. Plaintiff also alleges that during their cordial relationship through September 2000, defendant repeatedly assured him he would personally pay the debt obligation.
Based on these assertions, the complaint advances the following five causes of action: (1) gross negligence in the performance of legal and investment services rendered to plaintiff; (2) breach of fiduciary duty; (3) fraud; (4) breach of the duties of good faith and fair dealing; and (5) breach of an oral agreement to repay the loan. Defendant’s amended answer denies any wrongdoing and alleges that he rendered only investment banking services solely on behalf of RAS Securities’ client, The Forgotten Woman.
The motion court granted defendant summary judgment dismissing the entire complaint and granted plaintiffs motion solely to the extent of directing the parties to schedule a discovery conference on defendant’s counterclaims.
We reverse. It is axiomatic that summary judgment is a drastic remedy that should not be granted where triable issues of fact are raised and cannot be resolved on conflicting affidavits (see Millerton Agway Coop. v Briarcliff Farms, 17 NY2d 57 [1966]; Sillman v Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp.,
We find that the motion court improperly resolved, rather than identifying, issues of fact. In addition, we find, based on this record, plaintiffs first four claims are not predicated solely on defendant’s role as attorney and investment advisor. Rather, the complaint itself bases these claims on defendant’s alleged additional role as escrow agent and his representations to
1. Fiduciary Duty
An attorney-client relationship “arises only when one contacts an attorney in his capacity as such for the purpose of obtaining legal advice or services” (Matter of Priest v Hennessy,
The motion court concluded that summary judgment was called for by the circumstances that (1) an adversarial relationship existed between defendant and plaintiff; (2) plaintiff paid no fee to defendant; and (3) Ira Kanarick, their mutual friend and a certified public accountant (CPA), was present at the meeting and therefore defendant could not have been acting as plaintiff’s attorney or investment advisor. These conclusions bespeak issue determination, not issue finding.
In addition to his factual averments, plaintiff submitted an affidavit of nonparty Andrew Plevin, which states that plaintiff and defendant were on friendly terms after The Forgotten Woman had defaulted on the loan. Defendant’s allegation, unsupported by any corroborating evidence, that any commission and fees were to be paid by The Forgotten Woman, in response to plaintiffs contention that defendant had waived plaintiffs obligation to pay those fees, only creates an issue of fact regarding defendant’s role and whom defendant represented in the transaction.
In sum, plaintiff raises numerous material issues of fact as to whether, by describing himself as a lawyer and successful investment advisor, defendant was offering his services, and whether he gratuitously prepared the loan document and waived the commission. Indeed, the totality of the evidence at least suggests that defendant was acting as plaintiff’s attorney and investment advisor, because within one day defendant advised plaintiff to make an investment and execute a loan agreement without plaintiff consulting another investment advisor, as plaintiff typically did, or another lawyer, as is customary.
As stated above, an attorney/investment advisor relationship was not the sole basis for plaintiff’s fiduciary duty claim. Alternatively, plaintiff raises material issues of fact regarding two additional bases for a fiduciary relationship—that defendant acted as escrow agent and that a fiduciary duty was created as a result of the business transaction. As to defendant’s status as escrow agent, the promissory note expressly states that RAS, of which defendant was an officer, was to act as escrow agent for the collateral and that plaintiff had “the right to instruct RAS to liquidate” upon default.
It is settled law that an escrow agent owes his or her beneficiary a fiduciary duty (see Bardach v Chain Bakers,
Finally, plaintiff also raises a triable issue as to whether defendant owed him a fiduciary duty as a result of their business transaction. Indeed, “[t]o claim that a business transaction gave rise to a fiduciary relationship, plaintiff must show that defendant had superior expertise or knowledge about some subject and misled plaintiff by false representations concerning that subject” (Stuart Silver Assoc. v Baco Dev. Corp.,
Here, the record indicates that although plaintiff had obtained a license from the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) in 1961, he had not been active in the industry for nearly 40 years. Rather, he was employed in not-for-profit fundraising. On balance, plaintiff raises a triable issue as to whether defendant possessed superior expertise and knowledge with respect to the business transaction which gave rise to a fiduciary duty.
2. Gross Negligence
As defendant’s only argument for dismissal of plaintiffs gross negligence claims is based on the flawed premise that these claims against him are predicated solely on the fact that defendant is an attorney or investment advisor, the motion court erred in granting defendant summary judgment on this cause of action.
3. Fraud
To support his fraud claim, plaintiff alleges that defendant made the following misrepresentations: (1) that the investment was safe, and (2) that the loan would be secured by securities to be held in escrow with a value exceeding the debt.
The motion court found that plaintiff’s reliance on these misrepresentations was unreasonable as a matter of law. Again, we find that the motion court erred in resolving issues of fact relating to this claim. In his affidavit in opposition to defendant’s cross motion, plaintiff avers that: (1) he never used his NASD license after passing the test in the 1960s, and he never worked as a broker or investment professional; (2) he spent his career as a rabbi, a philosophy teacher and a fund raiser for nonprofit
4. Good Faith and Fair Dealing
Plaintiff asserts defendant breached the duty of good faith and fair dealing. Defendant’s only responsive argument is that there existed no underlying agreement. In light of the triable issue plaintiff raises regarding an agreement for defendant to act as his attorney and investment advisor, the motion court should not have granted summary judgment on this claim.
5. Oral Guaranty
Plaintiff asserts that he and defendant made an oral agreement for defendant to cover The Forgotten Woman’s debt in return for plaintiff’s forbearance from prosecuting his claims against either The Forgotten Woman or defendant. While ordinarily such a promise would fail in face of the statute of frauds, that oral promise would be enforceable (1) if it were supported by new consideration; (2) if it were beneficial to the promisor; and (3) if the promisor had agreed to be directly liable for the debt (see Martin Roofing v Goldstein,
In his verified complaint, plaintiff avers that, as consideration, he offered to forbear from suing both The Forgotten Woman and defendant. Defendant’s claim that this promise provided him with no benefit as he was not a shareholder or officer of The Forgotten Woman fails to acknowledge that plaintiff also promised not to sue defendant, a promise of plaintiff which raises an issue of fact about whether there existed new consideration.
With respect to the motion to strike, the imposition of sanc
Notes
. RAS is now out of business.
. The record indicates that during 1998 and 1999 plaintiff and defendant engaged in two other unrelated loan transactions.
. While not at issue on appeal, defendant also asserts three counterclaims for (1) assault and battery; (2) intentional infliction of emotional distress; and (3) money had and received.
. The court also denied that branch of defendant’s cross motion for summary judgment on the third counterclaim and severed the counterclaims.
. Plaintiff, in opposition to defendant’s motion for summary judgment, alleges that defendant defaulted in his obligation to respond to demands for
. The motion court’s conclusion that plaintiff failed to allege any facts demonstrating forbearance apparently overlooks that part of plaintiff s verified complaint, which constitutes competent evidence on a summary judgment motion, which specifically alleges “plaintiffs forbearance from bringing an action against The Forgotten Woman and Schulman” in exchange for defendant’s
. Finally, plaintiffs belated request for attorneys’ fees in connection with his motion for CPLR 3126 sanctions is apparently raised for the first time on appeal and is, therefore, not properly before this Court (see Green Point Sav. Bank v Oppenheim,