Not All False Representations or “Fraudulent” Conduct Amount to a Cause of Action for Fraud

During the course of my forty years in practice, I have seen a lot of pleadings that throw in all kinds of allegations of false statements or other claimed “fraudulent” conduct seeking to formulate a cause of action for the tort of fraud. But simply pointing to what might be thought of colloquially as fraudulent conduct or even outright false statements does not necessarily satisfy the legal elements sufficiently to state a cause of action for fraud. Pleading a viable cause of action for fraud requires strategic thought, legal precision and detail.

To properly state a claim for fraud, the false statement or fraudulent conduct must have been directed at the claimant and influence the claimant to its detriment.

As the New York Court of Appeals explained in Pasternack v. Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings, 27 NY3d 817, 829 (2016), “the tort of fraud is intended to protect a party from being induced to act or refrain from acting based on false representations—a situation which does not occur where …

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