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GREFE & SIDNEY v. WATTERS12/21/1994
This case involves issues arising from a petition by a law firm against its client for fees and a counterclaim by the client for alleged legal malpractice.
The ultimate question is whether a verdict and judgment in favor of the law firm on the malpractice counterclaim can render harmless a prior yet allegedly erroneous grant of summary judgment in favor of the law firm on its petition for fees.
We conclude no reversible error occurred in the trial of the client's legal malpractice counterclaim.
We also conclude under this record that, even if the trial court erred in granting the prior summary judgment to the law firm on its petition for attorney fees, any such error was rendered harmless or moot by the affirmed judgment on the counterclaim.
Accordingly, we affirm the district court judgment in favor of the law firm on the whole case.
I. Background facts and proceedings. Defendant Lucille Watters hired attorney Henry A. Harmon, a partner in the law firm of Grefe & Sidney of Des Moines, to represent her in a dissolution of marriage action. At their initial meeting on December 28, 1988, Harmon advised Watters that his fee would be $100 per hour and that the total fee and expenses would be approximately $30,000. Harmon represented Watters throughout the dissolution of marriage case, which concluded in a settlement agreement on May 31, 1989. A dissolution decree based thereon was filed on June 18, 1989.
The settlement agreement and decree basically divided the marital assets, including the homestead and several parcels of real estate , between the two parties. As to a significant marital asset, an automobile dealership named Watters Autoland, Inc. located in Indianola, the settlement agreement provided that Watters receive shares of stock in the close corporation, which represented one-half of a forty-nine percent interest in the dealership. [525 NW2d Page 823]
Watters agreed to the stipulated settlement in open court. She also agreed to pay her attorney fees, but she failed to pay Harmon's fees or the expenses, which together totaled approximately $30,000.
Watters has not tried to set aside the stipulation and dissolution decree.
Plaintiff Grefe & Sidney filed suit against Watters claiming that she owed them $30,570.65 for the provision of legal services and for expenses in obtaining a dissolution of marriage and property settlement for Watters.
Watters denied Grefe & Sidney's allegations and subsequently filed a counterclaim against Grefe & Sidney as well as a cross-petition against Harmon, a third-party defendant. The basis of Watters' counterclaim was her claim that Grefe & Sidney and Harmon breached their duty to exercise reasonable skill, care and learning on her behalf in their provision of legal services to her, that their services were thus of no value, and that as a proximate result of Grefe & Sidney and Harmon's negligence, Watters was damaged. In particular, Watters alleged that Harmon was negligent in recommending to her that she enter into a property settlement which contained no provision for the payment of alimony, the continuation of health insurance or use of a company car, and which provided her with shares of stock representing one-half of a minority interest in a closely held corporation where the only other two shareholders, her former husband and her son, were hostile to her interests.
Plaintiff Grefe & Sidney filed a motion for summary judgment against Watters for recovery of its attorney fees and costs as requested in its petition. Plaintiff claimed that it was undisputed: that Watters contracted with Grefe & Sid
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