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Shamus Can't Sue NY Lawyers to Collect Illegal Fees By Mark Fass An attorney who allegedly hired an investigator to locate and solicit accident victims then failed to pay the investigator's finder's fee has successfully moved to dismiss the investigator's suit for non-payment on the grounds of illegality. "The agreement alleged by plaintiff is one between a nonlawyer and attorneys to split legal fees which is proscribed by Judiciary Law §491," a unanimous Appellate Division, First Department, panel held in Bonilla v. Rotter, 9806. "Accordingly, the agreement is illegal and plaintiff is foreclosed from seeking the assistance of the courts in enforcing it."According to the pro se suit filed by Guillermo Bonilla, Seth Rotter of the now-disbanded Manhattan personal-injury firm Ripka Rotter King & Tacopina hired Mr. Bonilla to use his contacts at New York City hospitals to obtain the names and medical records of people involved in accidents. Under their agreement, Mr. Bonilla would contact the accident victims and recommend they hire Mr. Rotter, who agreed to pay Mr. Bonilla $2,500 for each case landed and settled, according to Mr. Bonilla's suit. After Mr. Rotter and his then-partner Alan Ripka - who took over Mr. Rotter's cases when he was suspended from practicing law in 1998 for bribing insurance company employees - purportedly failed to pay Mr. Bonilla, he commenced this suit. In February 2005, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Rolando T. Acosta denied the defendants' motion for summary judgment. Yesterday, the First Department reversed, holding that the illegality of the alleged agreement precluded the court from enforcing it. "It is the settled law of this State . . . that a party to an illegal contract cannot ask a court of law to help him carry out his illegal object, nor can such a person plead or prove in any court a case in which he, as a basis for his claim, must show forth his illegal purpose," the court held in its unsigned opinion, quoting Stone v Freeman, 298 NY 268. The defendants' law firm broke up last January, when Mr. Ripka joined Napoli Bern, bringing the majority of the firm's attorneys and clients with him. Mr. Rotter has since filed a $40 million claim against Mr. Ripka, alleging among other things that he had misrepresented to clients that their firm had merged with Napoli Bern. Richard Godosky of Godosky & Gentile represented Mr. Rotter and Mr. Ripka in the appeal of the present case. Mr. Godosky said he does not anticipate that Mr. Rotter, who no longer practices law, will face disciplinary charges. "[Mr. Rotter] denied any such agreement," Mr. Godosky said. "Mr. Ripka shouldn't even have been part of the case. The last claim was made in 1991. He was not even part of the firm then." The panel included Justices Richard T. Andrias, Peter Tom, George D. Marlow, Eugene Nardelli and James McGuire.
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A Feast
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