Omansky v. Lapidus & Smith, L. L. P.

Order, Supreme Court, New York County (Harold Tompkins, J.), entered July 9, 1999, which granted defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint and awarded sanctions in their favor in the amount of $2,500, unanimously modified, on the law and the facts, to deny the motion with respect to plaintiffs’ third cause of action and to reinstate that cause, and to vacate the award of sanctions, and otherwise affirmed, without costs.

The complaint should not have been dismissed on grounds of *111collateral estoppel and res judicata since the prior dismissal was not on the merits (see, Hodge v Hotel Empls. &…