In Houbigant, Inc. v. Deloitte & Touche LLP, (303 A.D.2d 92 [1st Dept 2003]) the third-party, non-client plaintiff alleged that, when the accounting firm, Deloitte, certified the accuracy of the financial statements, it knew, but failed to acknowledge, that the client's financial statements contained numerous serious irregularities and errors, which could have a material impact on the accuracy of the financial statements' recitation of the client's net worth. The First Department found that these allegations sufficiently pled both misrepresentation and scienter, the elements necessary to support a fraud claim by a non-client against an accountant. The First Department emphasized that a fraud claim need only be pled in sufficient detail to appraise the defendant of the nature of the claim, and citing to the Court of Appeals case of Jered Contr. Corp. v. New York City Tr. Auth. (22 N.Y.2d 187 [1968]), it specifically recognized that: with respect to fraud, sometimes the surrounding circumstances are peculiarly within the knowledge of the party against whom the claim is being asserted. The element of scienter, that is, the requirement that the defendant knew of the falsity of the representation being made to the plaintiff, is, of course, the element most likely to be within the sole knowledge of the defendant and least amenable to direct proof (Houbigant, Inc., 303 A.D.2d at 97).