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Nepanuseno v. Hansen11/23/2004
2004 Opinion No. 67
Order denying motion for new trial and order imposing sanctions on plaintiff's counsel, affirmed.
This appeal arises from a legal malpractice action in which a jury found that the defendant, Scott Hansen, did not act negligently in providing legal services to the plaintiff, Mario Nepanuseno. On appeal, Nepanuseno contends that the district court erred in denying his motion for a new trial because there was insufficient evidence to support the jury's verdict. Specifically, Nepanuseno contends that Hansen admitted liability at trial and therefore the jury's verdict was contrary to the evidence. Nepanuseno also asserts error in the district court's imposition of sanctions against his counsel for failure to comply with a pretrial order. We affirm.
I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
In October 1996, Nepanuseno was working for H & K Contractors when he was involved in an industrial accident. At the time of the accident, Nepanuseno and a co-worker were unloading cement catch basins from a flatbed truck. Nepanuseno would attach a chain to the catch basin, and then the co-worker, using a backhoe, would lift the basin off of the truck. While Nepanuseno was attaching a chain to a catch basin, a hydraulic hose ruptured in the boom cylinder of the backhoe, causing the bucket of the backhoe to immediately fall to the ground. The bucket fell on Nepanuseno's arm, pinning it to the catch basin and causing permanent damage to the arm. In August 1997, Nepanuseno contacted Hansen to represent him in his worker 's compensation case. Hansen agreed to the representation and later sent Nepanuseno an engagement letter confirming that Hansen would pursue Nepanuseno's worker 's compensation claim and setting forth Hansen's fees for that work. Hansen did a substantial amount of work on Nepanuseno's case. In April 1999, Nepanuseno terminated Hansen as his attorney due to unresolvable conflicts.
In October 2000, Nepanuseno filed a legal malpractice claim against Hansen alleging that Hansen was negligent in failing to bring a products liability case against the manufacturer of the backhoe, John Deere, within the two-year statute of limitation. Nepanuseno claimed that had Hansen properly investigated, he would have discovered a claim against John Deere for product liability because the backhoe was defective in that it did not have a safety device to prevent the bucket from falling in case of a rupture in the hydraulic hose. Hansen denied liability and the case proceeded to trial. At trial, Nepanuseno testified that he had told Hansen about the ruptured hose on the backhoe and that Hansen had agreed to file a products liability claim against John Deere. Nepanuseno argued that even if there was no express agreement to file a claim against John Deere, Hansen had a duty to investigate the circumstances surrounding the accident and discover the potential products liability claim.
In response, Hansen claimed that there was never any mention by him, or Nepanuseno, about any claims against John Deere, and that if he had agreed to represent Nepanuseno in such an action, it would have been included in the engagement letter which Hansen sent to Nepanuseno. Hansen also testified that Nepanuseno said nothing to him about the backhoe malfunctioning, but rather blamed the accident on his co-worker's mishandling the backhoe. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury found in favor of Hansen, concluding that Hansen was not negligent in his representation of Nepanuseno.
Subsequently, Nepanuseno filed a motion for a new trial, alleging that Hansen had admitted liability during the trial and that the evidence was insufficient to support the jury's verd
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