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Eastman v. Flor-Ohio9/17/1999
l malpractice claim by voluntarily dismissing its appeal. After considering argument of counsel, the trial court denied the motion on appeal; the law firm challenges that ruling.
The issue of whether a party's voluntary dismissal of an appeal involving a related case constitutes an abandonment of that party's subsequent action for legal malpractice based upon allegations of negligence occurring in the related case was considered by the third district in Pennsylvania Insurance Guaranty Association v. Sikes, 590 So. 2d 1051 (Fla. 3d DCA 1991). In Sikes, an insurance company sued its trial counsel for legal malpractice alleging that counsel had been negligent in defending the company in a related personal injury lawsuit. In the personal injury lawsuit, the trial court had determined that the insurance company's pleadings were inadequate and the court denied the company's motion to amend its pleadings. The matter proceeded to trial and a verdict was later returned against the insurance company. Of particular importance to our Discussion is the fact that, after the adverse judgment was entered against the insurance company, the company immediately retained new counsel and appealed the final judgment. The claims of error raised in the appeal related to whether the trial court erred in ruling on the adequacy of the insurance company's pleadings. However, before the appeal was perfected, the insurance company settled the underlying personal injury lawsuit and voluntarily dismissed the pending appeal.
Thereafter, the insurance company sued its trial counsel for malpractice, alleging that the attorney had negligently prepared the pleadings in the personal injury lawsuit. To support this claim, the insurance company relied upon the trial court's ruling that the pleadings were inadequate. Trial counsel moved for summary judgment alleging that the insurance company could not prevail on its claim for legal malpractice because, by voluntarily dismissing its appeal in the personal injury lawsuit, the company had deprived the appellate court of the opportunity to decide whether the trial court had erred in ruling on the adequacy of the pleadings drafted by counsel. The trial court agreed and entered summary judgment in favor of trial counsel. Upon review, the third district affirmed the summary judgment, holding "on the facts of this case . . . the [insurance company's] settlement of the underlying personal injury case, while the appeal was pending, constituted an abandonment of any claim that [the insurance company's] loss resulted from legal malpractice rather than judicial error." Id. at 1053. Importantly, the third district noted that "in all likelihood, there would have been a reversal of the judgment" entered in the personal injury case because the trial court had erred in finding that the defensive pleadings were inadequate. Id. at 1053. The court then explained its theory of abandonment by noting that the error which lead to the entry of judgment against the insurance company in the personal injury suit "was judicial error rather than legal malpractice." Id. at 1052. Notably, the third district cautiously based its ruling "on the facts of this case," thereby emphasizing that this theory of abandonment must be narrowly applied on a case by case basis.
A close reading of the Sikes opinion reveals that the third district recognized that the vital element presented by the facts in that case was that the alleged error upon which the insurance company's entire claim of legal malpractice was based (i.e., the trial court's finding that defensive pleadings filed by trial counsel were inadequate) turned out to be an error made by the trial court which would have been corrected had the appeal not been dism
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