 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Sullivan v. Aslanides1/6/2005
e decision. Here, Sullivan did not receive an adverse decision until 2000, when we reversed the trial court.
Within its written opinion, the trial court also referred to Palisades Nat'l Bank v. Williams, 816 P. 2d 961 (Colo. Ct. App. 1991). In that matter, defendant Williams drafted an agreement in 1979 for plaintiff bank with regard to the bank's purchase of certain real property. Palisades, 816 P. 2d at 962. The bank learned in 1986 that its contract did not require the seller to participate in the development of an adjoining parcel, although it required the bank to do so, and that the seller intended to enforce the agreement as written. The bank's suit for legal malpractice, filed in 1989, was dismissed as untimely under Colorado's two-year period of limitations. Ibid.
In its opinion, the Colorado Court of Appeals held that the undisputed facts clearly showed that by November 1986 the bank knew that its attorney had incorrectly drafted a contract to the bank's disadvantage. Id. at 963. As we have indicated earlier in this opinion, however, we do not consider the instant situation so clear cut and, thus, we do not view Palisades as persuasive authority.
Further, we are troubled by the potential consequences of the trial court's holding. Parties can commence litigation for a variety of reasons, some substantive, some not. That one party incurs legal expenses in defending against an action does not necessarily equate with fault on the part of the attorney who drafted the document sued upon.
In addition, we think certain of the language in Grunwald has to be read now in light of the Court's later opinion in Olds v. Donnelly, 150 N.J. 424 (1997). Although the Court in Olds was dealing with the accrual of a claim of legal malpractice in the context of the entire controversy doctrine, it has recognized that the questions of such accrual and entire controversy involve a similar analysis. Olds, supra, 150 N.J. at 436.
Plaintiff Olds had retained defendant Donnelly to represent him in a medical malpractice action. Id. at 428. Donnelly never achieved service upon the defendant physician. Ibid. Olds later retained new counsel who eventually achieved service some two years after the complaint was filed; that complaint, however, was dismissed for failure to make timely service, and Olds then sued Donnelly for legal malpractice. Id. at 429. Donnelly contended the claim against him was barred by the entire controversy doctrine, saying Olds should have joined him as a defendant in the medical malpractice action. Id. at 430. The Supreme Court affirmed our holding that Olds's legal malpractice action against Donnelly did not accrue until the dismissal with prejudice of his underlying medical malpractice action. Id. at 428.
It strikes us as incongruous to hold in this case that Sullivan's claim of legal malpractice against defendants accrued when he hired counsel to defend against the Szwed litigation in light of the fact that he prevailed on all issues before the trial court. The trial court in this matter stressed language in our earlier decision in Szwed v. Sullivan which described 7(e) of the employment agreement as"clear and unequivocal" as to how expenses should be allocated. We do not retreat from our earlier decision but note that Szwed's expert never contended that 7(e) mandated the method we directed, and the trial court in that matter did not read 7(e) to compel the computational method we directed.
In our view, the position that the statute of limitations began to run against Sullivan on his claim of legal malpractice on the part of defendants when he retained counsel to defend against Szwed's lawsuit is further weakened by Section
Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 New Jersey Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|