Fraud Claims May Be Pled on Information and Belief

On December 22, 2015, the First Department issued a decision in Allenby, LLC v. Credit Suisse, AG, 2015 NY Slip Op. 09381, sustaining a fraud claim pled on information and belief, explaining:

The court dismissed the fraud claim on the grounds that it had not been pleaded with sufficient particularity and that too much of it was pleaded on information and belief. However, the complaint informs defendants that plaintiffs are complaining about the appraisals for five specific transactions. At this early, pre-discovery stage of the litigation, plaintiffs were not required to allege that a particular named individual inflated an appraisal should not be so strictly interpreted as to prevent an otherwise valid cause of action in situations where it may be impossible to state in detail the circumstances constituting a fraud.

Although the allegations of fraud are based on information and belief, plaintiffs set forth sufficient information to apprise defendants of the alleged wrongs. In addition to pleading only on information and belief that defendants caused the appraisers to inflate the appraisals at issue, plaintiffs allege that the transactions in the instant action were like the Lake The Legal Aid Society, New York (of counsel), for Vegas transaction, for which they allege specific dates and names.

(Internal quotations and citations omitted).