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Corr Cronin Wins Summary Judgment, Dismissing Legal Malpractice Claim Against Major Seattle Law Firm
Monday, November 26, 2007 On November 9th Corr Cronin attorneys Guy Michelson and Emily Brubaker obtained summary judgment, dismissing plaintiff's legal malpractice claim against a major Seattle law firm.
The plaintiff was the sole beneficiary of his father's estate. The law firm represented the personal representative of the estate. The probate proceedings commenced in 1978 with the value of the estate estimated to be $9.5 million for estate tax purposes. When probate proceedings finally closed in 2007, little remained to be distributed to the sole beneficiary. Plaintiff alleged that the law firm and the personal representative of the estate conspired to loot the assets of the estate, and otherwise breached their fiduciary obligations. Plaintiff was particularly critical of (a) personal loans from one of the law firm's partners to the estate, (b) the law firm's simultaneous representation of the personal representative of the estate and the estate's sole beneficiary, and (c) transfers of estate real property to the law firm in partial payment of outstanding attorneys fees. Damages were alleged to be in the range of $5-8 million.
Despite these inflammatory allegations, the trial court agreed with Corr Cronin's argument that the plaintiff knew, or in the exercise of reasonable care should have known, of the factual elements giving rise to his claims more than three years prior to filing of the current litigation. The trial court further agreed that reasonable minds could not differ on this issue, and thus summary judgment was appropriate based upon the applicable statutes of limitations.
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