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Palmer v. Pheils6/28/2002
DECISION AND JUDGMENT ENTRY
. This is an appeal from a judgment of the Wood County Court of Common Pleas, awarding "indemnification" damages to attorneys as compensation for their former clients' breach of a settlement agreement. Because we conclude that the trial court should not have permitted indemnification compensation for collateral proceedings subsequent to judgment, we reverse, and remand.
. Appellants are David and Ok Sun Palmer. In 1987, appellants retained the law firm of Crandall, Pheils & Wisniewski (nka David R. Pheils, Jr. & Associates) to represent them in a Michigan personal injury claim. See Pheils v. Palmer (May 14, 1993), Lucas App. No. L-91-426; Pheils v. Palmer (Aug. 10, 1993), Lucas App. No. L-91-426, jurisdictional motions overruled. Pheils v. Palmer (1993), 67 Ohio St.3d 1470; Pheils v. Palmer (1993), 68 Ohio St.3d 1420; see, also, Pheils v. Palmer (Feb. 5, 1993), Wood App. No. WD-92-024. When the association between appellants and the law firm deteriorated, the firm sued appellants for fees appellants allegedly owed. Appellants, in a separate action, sued the firm and its partners, Dale Crandall, David Pheils, and Marshall Wisniewski, for legal malpractice. What we have termed "unusually acrimonious" and "exceptionally convoluted" legal proceedings ensued.
. These matters were consolidated and eventually the parties reached a settlement agreement. Read into the record on October 22, 1991, appellants agreed to release appellees from any claim for " * any event * occurring prior to or contemporaneous with the execution [of the agreement]."
. On November 6, 1991, appellants sued appellees in Wood County for defamation, breach of privilege, and invasion of privacy, all premised on alleged events occurring prior to October 22, 1991. Appellees counterclaimed, alleging a breach of the October 1991 settlement agreement.
. The trial court granted summary judgment to appellees, concluding that the 1991 settlement agreement barred all of appellants' claims. On appellees' counterclaim, the trial court ruled in favor of appellees and awarded $1,000 damages, even though appellees had asked for judgment on the issue of liability alone. On appeal, we affirmed the judgment against appellants and in favor of appellees on the breach of contract liability. However, we found the award of damages for the breach premature and remanded the matter for a damages hearing. Palmer v. Pheils (Feb. 5, 1993), Wood App. No. WD-92-024.
. On remand, again following lengthy legal maneuvering, the trial court in 1995 awarded appellees "damages" of $67,762 plus interest, a figure largely representing appellees' attorney time dealing with appellants' 1991 Wood County lawsuit and prosecution of the counterclaim for breach of the October 1991 settlement agreement. Predictably, both sides appealed this judgment.
. On appeal, we affirmed the trial court's judgment, holding that appellees were entitled to damages that, " * resulted as the natural and probable result of appellants' breach of the October 22, 1991 settlement agreement and pursuant to the covenant to indemnify." Palmer v. Pheils (Aug. 29, 1997), Wood App. No. WD-96-001.
. Following our August 1997 decision, appellees moved the trial court for an additional $142,665.42 "indemnification damages" for the period following the 1995 judgment which first awarded "indemnification" damages. Included in these sums were costs and attorney fees related to postjudgment proceedings, including appeals, related to the Wood County case which underlies this appeal; attorney fees related to collection attempts; attorney fees for proceedings before the bankruptcy
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