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Noble v. Bruce5/21/1998
Aileen L. Noble et al. V. Charles A. Bruce, Jr. - No. 7, 1997 Term & Thomas W. Fauntleroy, Jr. et al. v. Sara N. Blizzard, Personal Representative et al. - No. 55, 1997 Term
Attorney - Malpractice - Non-client testamentary beneficiary may not bring malpractice action against attorney for negligent estate planning advice to testator or negligently drafting testator's will where there is no privity between the beneficiary and the attorney.
Circuit Court for Somerset County
Circuit Court for Talbot County
The two consolidated cases before this Court, Noble, et al. v. Bruce, No. 7, September Term 1997, and Fauntleroy, et al. v. Blizzard, et al., No.55, September Term 1997, present the identical issue of whether a non-client, testamentary beneficiary may maintain a cause of action for professional malpractice against an attorney where it is alleged that the attorney either provided negligent estate planning advice to the testator, or negligently drafted the testator's will, in a manner which resulted in significant estate and inheritance taxes that could have been avoided.
I.
A. Noble
The Noble beneficiaries are six of eight surviving children of Earl and Florence Long. The Longs retained Respondent, Charles A. Bruce, Jr., to advise them in planning their estates and preparing their wills. The Longs owned, as joint tenants with right of survivorship, approximately 366 acres of real property including several farms, securities worth $660,000, and cattle worth approximately $30,000. Bruce prepared "mirror wills" which were executed on July 29, 1991. Under these wills, Mr. Long bequeathed all of his interest in the Longs' property to Ms. Long if she survived him, and Ms. Long bequeathed all of her interest in their property to Mr. Long if he survived her. Both of the wills also provided that upon the death of the survivor: 1) the family residence and curtilage on one of the farms would pass to Lorraine Kulyncyz, one of the Longs' daughters who is not a party in this case; 2) the Longs' partial interest in certain other real property passed to Mr. Long's sister; and 3) the remainder of the estate passed to the Longs' eight children as joint tenants with right of survivorship, subject to a life estate in Thomas F. Long, one of their sons who is not a party in this case.
On August 28, 1991, Mr. Long died, and all of his property passed to Ms. Long pursuant to the will and by operation of the joint tenancies, free from federal estate taxes under the marital deduction provided in 26 U.S.C. 2056. Shortly after Mr. Long's death, Ms. Long transferred all of her real property to Lorraine Kulyncyz and Thomas F. Long. On June 22, 1994, Ms. Long died.
On August 25, 1994, the beneficiaries filed a legal malpractice action against Bruce alleging that Bruce was negligent in failing to advise Mr. and Ms. Long that they could each shelter up to $600,000 in both of their estates from any federal estate tax under 26 U.S.C. 2010, the Unified Credit Against Estate Tax. If both spouses use the Unified Credit, up to $1.2 million can pass to beneficiaries free of federal estate tax. In order for both spouses to take advantage of the Unified Credit, one mechanism commonly used is the bypass, or credit shelter, trust for the benefit of the surviving spouse. In his affidavit in support of summary judgment, Bruce asserted that he advised the Longs of the ramifications of federal estate and gift tax laws and the benefits of utilizing a bypass trust, but the Longs rejected such a mechanism because it would interfere with their control over their assets during their lifetimes.
Prior to discovery, Bruce filed a mo
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