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McGann v. Wilson10/30/1997
Opinion by Getty, J.
This is an appeal by John L. McGann, appellant herein, a Virginia lawyer who claims he was not subject to a lawsuit in the Circuit Court for Prince George's County, Maryland, because the Maryland court lacked personal jurisdiction over him.
Both appellant herein and his co-counsel, a Maryland lawyer, became impaled on their own petards as a result of requesting that the trial judge, at the conclusion of a civil jury trial in Fairfax County, Virginia, allow the jury to disclose what its verdict would have been had the case not been settled minutes before the jury returned its verdict. Counsel settled the case for $200,000; the jury verdict would have been $750,000. Once those disparate figures hit the proverbial fan, the battle began in earnest. We explain.
James C. Wilson and Judy Wilson, his wife, appellees herein, are residents of Prince George's County, Maryland. On September 3, 1987, Mr. Wilson sustained serious injuries when he fell on a loading dock that collapsed while he was delivering packages for United Parcel Services to Hodges Gallery in Fairfax County, Virginia. Mrs. Wilson, at that time, was employed as a legal secretary for the law firm of Fishman and Jaklitsch, located in Prince George's County. Mr. Wilson retained Richard Jaklitsch to pursue a third party claim against Hodges Gallery for negligence in failing to maintain the loading dock in a safe condition.
The statute of limitations for personal injury claims was about to expire in Virginia, prompting Jaklitsch to retain appellant as local counsel in Virginia. Prior to retaining appellant, Jaklitsch had never met or dealt with him in any capacity. Jaklitsch forwarded his pleadings to appellant for revision and filing in Fairfax County, Virginia. Throughout the preparation and trial of the case, appellant never came to Maryland, and did all his preparation in Virginia. Jaklitsch remained as principal counsel. He testified as follows:
I'm always the man on the case. The Wilsons were my clients. In addition to my clients, they were my very close friends.... I was always the guy running the case. I was lead counsel at the trial. I did ninety percent of the trial.
At the time of trial against Hodges Gallery, there existed a Virginia Workers' Compensation claim amounting to approximately $129,000 for medical and wage benefits that appellees had received. Jaklitsch's pretrial efforts to negotiate a reduction of the compensation lien with the attorney for the compensation carrier were unsuccessful. On the final day of trial, immediately before the jury was poised to return its verdict, Wilson agreed to a settlement of his claim against Hodges Gallery for $200,000, payable $150,000 in cash and an annuity of $50,000, to be paid over ten years.
The terms of the settlement were put on the record by the trial judge, including Wilson's admission that he would accept the terms and conditions of the settlement. Immediately after the terms of the settlement were placed on the record, the parties agreed to hear the amount the jury would have awarded. The court permitted the jury foreman to announce that its verdict would have been in favor of Wilson for $750,000.
After settlement, a post-trial hearing was held before the trial judge on the worker's compensation lien. At that hearing, attended by Wilson, Jaklitsch and appellant McGann, Jaklitsch presented to the court his retainer agreement with Wilson for fifty percent of the amount of the recovery in the tort case. The trial judge then reduced the amount of the compensation lien by fifty percent. Whether the 50% fee induced the 50% compensation reduction is unclear.
After
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