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Bevan v. Fix3/21/2002
Appeal from the District Court of Teton County The Honorable Keith G. Kautz, Judge
[ ] Appellant minors, Brittany Bevan and Steven Tyler Bevan (Brittany and Steven) appeal, through their father and next friend Steven Matthew Bevan (Bevan), from the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of appellee William R. Fix (Fix) on their claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress. Having determined that the record reve als genuine issues of material fact sufficient to preclude summary judgment for the appellee on either child's claim, we reverse.
[ ] After addressing the scope of the duty an attorney owes former clients, however, we affirm the district court's grant of summary judgment in favor of appellee Fix on appellant Bevan's claim of legal malpractice. Affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded.
ISSUES
[ ] Appellants present two issues for review:
I. Did the District Court err in granting defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment because genuine issues of material fact existed to support the Plaintiff's Second Cause of Action for Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress[?]
II. Did the District Court err in granting defendant's Motion for Summary Judgment because genuine issues of material fact existed to support the Plaintiff's Fourth Cause of Action for Legal Malpractice[?]
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
[ ] Pursuant to our standard of review for summary judgments, the recitation of facts is from the vantage point most favorable to the plaintiffs, as the parties opposing the motions, awarding them all favorable inferences that may be drawn from the facts. S & G Investors, LLC v. Blackley, 994 P.2d 941, 943 (Wyo. 2000) .
[ ] Defendant William Fix is an attorney licensed to practice law in the state of Wyoming with an office in Jackson. In July of 1992, Bevan hired Fix to represent him as defense counsel on a charge of criminal battery for family violence against his then girlfriend Jenni Jones (Jones). Fix represented Bevan throughout the course of those proceedings, which ultimately ended in a plea agreement. In December of 1994, Bevan and Jones married. Brittany and Steven are the couple's biological children. Brittany was born in August of 1991, Steven in April of 1994.
[ ] In January of 1997, Jones, represented by Fix, filed a complaint for divorce from Bevan. Bevan was not consulted in regard to Fix's representation of his wife Jones nor did he consent to the representation. Subsequently, in June of 1997, Fix withdrew from representation of his client Jones because he had begun a sexual relationship with her. Bevan further alleges that during the course of the couple's divorce proceedings Fix, upon hearing a rumor that Bevan was going to file a lawsuit against him, phoned Bevan and threatened, "if I messed with him he would bury me." Bevan and Jones' divorce was finalized in December of 1997.
[ ] The facts that relate to the Bevan children's claims are as follows. On the evening of March 29, 1998, Jones and her children Brittany and Steven, as well as two teenage babysitters, were invited to Fix's home to spend the night. Jones and Fix left the children in the care of the babysitters and spent the evening drinking in a local bar with various others. After returning to Fix's home, the following events took place over the course of the night and the subsequent morning.
[ ] It appears from the record that everyone present agrees that Fix, Jones, and at least two other guests continued drinking and that eventually four adults, including Fix and Jones, were soaking in Fix's hot tub. At some point while in the hot tub,
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