Did Greenberg hide tea-time document incineration accident? Claim won't be heard; case is tossed
An appeals court has tossed a lawsuit accusing Greenberg Traurig of failing to disclose that a document central to its client’s defense was “burned under highly suspicious circumstances”—a claimed tea-time incineration accident.
Greenberg won dismissal of the suit by plaintiff James Melcher on statute of limitations grounds, the New York Law Journal reports. Melcher had sued under a New York law providing for treble damages when a lawyer participates in “deceit or collusion” with the intent to deceive a court or a litigant. The New York Appellate Division, First Department, ruled for the law firm in a 3-2 opinion last week.
Melcher, a former member of the hedge fund Apollo Medical Fund Management, had claimed Greenberg Traurig deceived a Manhattan court in his prior suit for a share of hedge fund profits.
The alleged deception: Greenberg had represented it was holding in escrow a document reducing Melcher’s membership rights in the fund. But firm didn’t disclose that the document had been partly incinerated by a hedge fund principal who claimed he accidentally set fire to the paper while making tea, Melcher claims.
Melcher was awarded $500,000 in his prior suit against the hedge fund, the New York Law Journal says.
