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WILLEY v. RILEY12/20/1995
onship); Nesler, 452 N.W.2d at 196 (holding substantial evidence existed on the knowledge element of plaintiff's interference with a prospective business advantage claim, and the court erred by sustaining defendants' judgment notwithstanding the verdict).
In sum, we conclude defendants' motion for judgment notwithstanding the verdict on plaintiff's claim for intentional interference with a prospective contract with Philip Morris should have been sustained, and, thus, we reverse the district court's ruling to the contrary.
III. Plaintiffs cross-appeal concerning his conversion claim. The cross-appeal, filed by plaintiff Willey, concerns the district court's grant of defendant's pretrial motion for summary judgment on plaintiff's conversion claim, set forth in Willey's amended petition. The conversion claim is rooted in the endorsement and disposition of a settlement check in a wrongful death case primarily handled by Willey, during his tenure with the Tom Riley Law Firm, entitled "In the Matter of the Estate of Jamie Lynn Harder."
A. Additional facts. The Harder litigation began in May 1988 and ran through February 1990. The origin of the litigation was the death of Jamie Lynn Harder in an accidental airplane crash in Colorado on April 3, 1988. Jamie was the seventeen-year-old daughter of John and Carole Harder. [541 NW2d Page 529]
John Harder, administrator of his daughter's estate, hired Willey and the law firm to represent the estate of Jamie Harder in a negligence/wrongful death lawsuit against various persons, including the manufacturers, owners, and operators of the aircraft whose alleged negligence caused his daughter's death. John Harder retained Willey and the law firm to investigate and litigate an action based upon the wrongful death of his daughter on a one-third contingent fee basis. Suit was filed.
The parties settled the lawsuit for $650,000 on January 17, 1990. The settlement was approved by the district court on January 22, the date the case was scheduled to go to trial. On February 2, 1990, Riley sent a law firm employee to the office of the Harder case defense counsel in Davenport to obtain the settlement check. On or about the same date, Willey signed Riley's name to a letter directed to the defense counsel claiming that interest was accruing on the settlement, and the law firm desired the settlement check to be remitted promptly to "John Harder, Executor of the Estate of Jamie Harder and Tom Riley Law Firm, P.C." (Emphasis added.) Defendants' insurer issued a check, prior to receiving Willey's request, in the amount of $650,000 payable to the following named payees: "John Harder, Individually and as Administrator of the Estate of Jamie Lynn Harder, and Carole Harder, and Wythe Willey, their attorney." (Emphasis added.) The law firm was not a named payee as Willey himself had desired.
When Riley's employee returned from Davenport with the settlement check, Riley and/or his agents, including Lisa Thirnbeck, Riley's daughter, endorsed the check in the names of the named payees "for deposit only" and deposited the entire settlement amount into the Tom Riley Trust Account at the City National Bank, which is also the Harders' bank.
On the same day that Riley deposited the $650,000 settlement amount in the law firm's trust account, Riley transferred two-thirds of the settlement, or $433,334 into a ten day, renewable certificate of deposit in the name of John and Carole Harder. The certificate of deposit earned 7 1/2% interest at the time. At the end of the ten days, the funds were transferred into a money market account in the Harders' name in anticipation that the check would clear by that date. On February 27,
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