Tag: legal malpractice

Federal Court Examines Illinois’ Savings Clause, Job-Related Per Se Defamation in Warring Yelp.com Posts

Shortly after their business relationship imploded, the parties in Levin v. Abramson, 2020 WL 249649, brought dueling defamation claims in Federal court premised on March 2017 Yelp posts by the parties.

The former client defendant (the “Client”) skewered the plaintiffs lawyer and her law firm (“Lawyer”) on Yelp.com in which he braded the Lawyer, among other things, an incompetent predator who defrauded Client.

The Lawyer responded with a post of her own the same day.  She added some factual context to Client’s screed and portrayed the reason behind Client’s vitriol as a simple billing dispute.  Lawyer also added in her retort that Client had a pattern of suing all of his lawyers.

Lawyer’s Complaint alleged claims for defamation and false light invasion of privacy.  Client counter-sued for defamation, too, and added legal malpractice and breach of fiduciary duty claims based on Lawyer’s Yelp response.

The Lawyer moved to dismiss Client’s counterclaims and both parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment.

Lawyer’s Motion to Dismiss

Rejecting the Lawyer’s argument that the Client’s defamation suit was untimely, the Court examined the interplay between Code Sections 13-201 [735 ILCS 5/13-201], the one-year statute of limitations for defamation suits and 13-207 [735 ILCS 5/13-207], the Illinois “savings” statute that permits otherwise time-barred counterclaims in certain circumstances.

The Court noted that each side’s alleged defamatory Yelp posts were published on March 22, 2017.  So the defamation one-year limitation period would normally expire March 22, 2018.  The Lawyer filed her defamation suit on March 8, 2018 – two weeks before the defamation statute lapsed while Client filed his counter-claim in January 2019 – almost 10 months after the limitations ran.

However, since the Lawyer’s defamation claim accrued before the defendant’s defamation counter-suit lapsed – March 22, 2018 – Section 13-207 preserved or “saved” the defendant’s countersuit even though it wasn’t filed until 10 months later.

The court then focused on whether the Client sufficiently alleged per se defamation against the Lawyer’s Rule 12(b)(6) attack.

Two salient stripes of per se defamation include statements (1) that impute a plaintiff’s inability to perform or want of integrity in the discharge of his duties of office or employment and (2) that prejudice a plaintiff or impute a lack of ability in his or her trade.  These particular per se claims must directly involve a plaintiff’s job performance;  generalized personal attacks on a plaintiff’s integrity and character are non-actionable.

The Court rejected Lawyer’s truth defense argument – that her Yelp retort was substantially true.  The Court found that whether, as Lawyer said in her post, that Client had in fact sued all of his other lawyers, lost his bid to reverse his credit card payment to Lawyer, and that his complaints to ARDC and CBA were rejected, were questions more appropriate for a summary judgment motion and not a dismissal motion.

Next, the Court addressed Lawyer’s argument that Client failed to properly allege in his Counterclaim what his job was and therefore couldn’t make out a claim that Lawyer’s Yelp response prejudiced Client in his work.  The Court held that when considering Client’s Counterclaim exhibits and supporting affidavit [both of which established that client owned a record label] Client plausibly pled Lawyer’s Yelp statements could prejudice him in his role as business owner.  On this point, the Court also credited Client’s argument that plaintiff’s Yelp response could cause the record company to lose current and future clients.

Cross-Motions for Summary Judgment

Both sides moved for summary judgment on plaintiff’s defamation and false light claims.  The Court considered Lawyer’s argument that Client’s Yelp post contained actionable facts as opposed to non-actionable opinions.

Black-letter defamation law cautions that opinions that do not misstate facts are not actionable. Whether a given statement consists of a factual (and therefore actionable) assertion, the court considers (1) whether the statement has a precise and readily understood meaning, (2) whether the statement is verifiable, and (3) whether the statement’s literary or social context signals it has factual content.

The Court found that Client’s Yelp review contained both opinion and factual elements.  The Client’s statements that Lawyer illegally charged Client’s credit card, exceeded a $4,000 ghost-writing budget by nearly $10,000, and that Client’s credit card sided with him in his dispute with Lawyer were all verifiable enough to be factual.  The Court also found that defendant’s branding plaintiff a “con artist” – normally non-actionable name-calling or opinion – rose to the level of actionable fact when viewed in context with other aspects of the Yelp review.

According to the Court, for the Lawyer to win summary judgment on her defamation claim, she must show that no reasonable jury fact could decide that Client’s Yelp statements were substantially true. Conversely, on the Client’s cross-motion, the Court noted that he must establish that a jury could only conclude that his Yelp review statements were substantially true for him to prevail on his cross-motion.

The Court found the record revealed genuine disputed fact questions as to (1) who severed the Lawyer-Client relationship and when, (2) whether the Lawyer agreed to cap her fees at $4,000 [which Lawyer disputed], (3) whether there was in fact a $4,000 budget for Lawyer’s ghost-writing work and (4) whether Lawyer had authority to charge Client’s credit card once the $4,000 retainer was exhausted.  These factual discrepancies led the Court to deny the warring summary judgment motions.

Afterwords:

Levin meticulously dissects the governing legal standards that control pleadings and dispositive motion practice in Federal courts.

The case also provides a trenchant analysis of Illinois per se defamation law, particularly the contours of job performance-related per se defamation, the truth defense, and the importance of the fact-versus-opinion analysis inherent in such a claim.

 

 

Possible Problematic Lien Notice Starts Limitations Clock in Lawyer ‘Mal’ Case

In Construction Systems, Inc. v. FagelHaber LLC, 2019 IL App (1st) 172430, the First District affirmed the time-barring of a legal malpractice suit stemming from a flubbed contractor’s lien filing.

Several months after a lender recorded its mortgage on a commercial project, the law firm defendant, then representing the plaintiff contractor, served a Section 24 notice – the Illinois mechanics’ lien act provision that governs subcontractor liens. 770 ILCS 60/24.  While the notice was served on the project owner and general contractor, it didn’t name the lender.  In Illinois, where a subcontractor fails to serve its lien notice on a lender, the lien loses priority against the lender.

After the contractor settled its lien claim with the lender’s successor, it sued the defendant law firm for malpractice. The contractor plaintiff alleged that had the law firm properly perfected the lien, the plaintiff would have recovered an additional $1.3M.

Affirming summary judgment for the defendant law firm, the First District agreed with the trial court and held that plaintiff’s legal malpractice suit accrued in early 2005. And since plaintiff didn’t sue until 2009, it was a couple years too late.

The Court based its ruling mainly on a foreboding February 2005 letter from plaintiff’s second counsel describing a “problematic situation” – the lender wasn’t notified of plaintiff’s subcontractor lien. The court also pointed out that plaintiff’s second attorney testified in her deposition that she learned of possible lien defects in February 2005; some four years before plaintiff filed suit.

Code Section 13-214.3(b) provides for a two-year limitations period for legal malpractice claims starting from when a plaintiff “knew or reasonably should have known of the injury for which damages are sought.” [⁋ 20]

A plaintiff’s legal malpractice case normally doesn’t accrue until he/she sustains an adverse judgment, settlement or dismissal. An exception to this rule is where it’s “plainly obvious” a plaintiff has been injured as a result of professional negligence.

The court rejected plaintiff’s argument that it never discovered the lien defect until 2007 when the lender’s successor filed its summary judgment motion (which argued that the lien was defective as to the lender). According to the court “the relevant inquiry is not when [Plaintiff] knew or should have known about the lack of notice as an actual defense, but when [Plaintiff] should have discovered [Defendant’s] failure to serve statutory notice of the mechanic’s lien on [the prior lender] prompting it to further investigate [Defendant’s] performance.” [⁋ 24]

The court again cited the above “problematic situation” letter as proof that February 2005 (when the letter was sent) was the triggering date for plaintiff’s claim. Another key chronological factor was the plaintiff’s 2005 payment of attorneys’ fees.

In Illinois, a malpractice plaintiff must plead and prove damages and the payment of attorneys’ fees can equate to damages when the fees are tied to a former counsel’s neglect. Since plaintiff paid its second counsel’s fees in 2005 for work she performed in efforts to resuscitate the lien’s priority, 2005 was the limitation period’s triggering date. [⁋ 25]

Construction Systems cites Nelson v. Padgitt, 2016 IL App (1st) 160571, for the proposition that a plaintiff does not have to suffer an adverse judgment to sustain legal malpractice injury. In Nelson, an employment contract dispute, the Court held that the plaintiff should have discovered deficiencies in his employment contract (it provided for the loss of salary and commissions in the event of for-cause termination) in 2012 when he sued his former employer, not in 2014 when the employer won summary judgment.

The Court also rejected plaintiff’s argument that its damages were unknown until the lien litigation was finally settled and that it couldn’t sue until the lien dispute was resolved. The court held that the extent and existence of damages are different things and that it’s the date a plaintiff learns he/she was damaged, not the amount, that matters.

Lastly, the court nixed plaintiff’s judicial estoppel concern – that plaintiff couldn’t argue the lien was valid in the underlying case while arguing the opposite in the malpractice suit. According to the court, the plaintiff could have entered into a tolling agreement that would suspend the statute of limitations pending the outcome of the underlying case.

Conclusion

Construction Systems reaffirms that a legal malpractice claim can accrue before an adverse judgment is entered or an opponent files a formal pleading that points out claim defects.  Moreover, the payment of attorneys’ fees directly attributable to a former counsel’s neglect is sufficient to meet the damages prong of a legal malpractice case.

This case and others like it also make clear that the limitations period runs from the date a plaintiff learns she has been injured; not when financial harm is specifically quantified.

To preserve a possible malpractice claim while a plaintiff challenges an underlying adverse ruling, practitioners should consider tolling agreements to suspend any statutes of limitation and guard against possible judicial estoppel concerns (taking inconsistent positions in separate lawsuits).

IL Supreme Court Expands on Shareholder Derivative Suits and Standing Doctrine in Att”y Malpractice Suit

Some minority shareholders in an LLC sued their former counsel for legal malpractice alleging the firm failed to file “obvious” breach of fiduciary claims against the LLC’s corporate counsel.

Affirming summary judgment for the defendant law firm in Stevens v. McGuirreWoods, LLP, 2015 IL 118652, the Illinois Supreme Court gives content to the quantum of proof needed to sustain a legal malpractice claim and discusses the type of legal interest that will confer legal standing for a corporate shareholder to sue in its individual capacity.

The plaintiffs’ central claim was that McGuirreWoods (MW) botched the underlying case by not timely suing Sidley Austin, LLP (Sidley), the LLC’s erstwhile counsel, in the wake of the LLC’s majority shareholders looting the company.  Sidley got the underlying case tossed on statute of limitations grounds and because the plaintiffs lacked standing.

The trial court found that even if MW had timely sued Sidley, the shareholder plaintiffs still lacked standing as their claims belonged exclusively to the LLC. After the First District appeals court partially reversed on a procedural issue, MW appealed to the Illinois Supreme Court.

Affirming judgment for Sidley, the Illinois Supreme Court considered the interplay between legal malpractice cases and shareholder derivative suits.

Dubbed a “case-within-a-case,” the legal malpractice claim plaintiff alleges that if it wasn’t for an attorney’s negligence in an underlying case, the plaintiff would have won that case and been awarded money damages.

The legal malpractice plaintiff must prove (1) the defendant attorney owed the plaintiff a duty of care arising from the attorney-client relationship, (2) the defendant attorney (or law firm) breached that duty, and (3) as a direct and proximate result of the breach, the plaintiff suffered injury.

Injury in the legal malpractice setting means the plaintiff suffered a loss which entitles him to money damages.  Without proof the plaintiff sustained a monetary loss as a result of the lawyer’s negligence, the legal malpractice suit fails.

The plaintiff must establish it would have won the underlying lawsuit but for the lawyer’s negligence.  The plaintiff’s recoverable damages in the legal malpractice case are the damages it would have recovered in the underlying case. [¶ 12]

Here, the plaintiffs sued as individual shareholders.  The problem was that Sidley’s obligation ran to the LLC entity.  As a result, the plaintiffs lacked individual standing to sue Sidley.

Under the law, derivative claims belong solely to a corporation on whose behalf the derivative suit is brought.  A plaintiff must have been a shareholder at the time of the transaction of which he complains and must maintain his shareholder status throughout the entire lawsuit.  [¶ 23]

Illinois’ LLC Act codifies this rule by providing that any derivative action recovery goes to the LLC; not the individual shareholder.  The individual shareholder plaintiff can recover his attorneys’ fees and expenses.  805 ILCS 180/40-15.

While a successful derivative suit plaintiff can benefit indirectly from an increase in share value, the Court held that missing out on increased share value was not something the shareholders could sue for individually in a legal malpractice suit.

Had MW timely sued Sidley, any recovery would have gone to the LLC, not to the plaintiffs.  And since the plaintiffs could not have recovered money damages against Sidley in the earlier lawsuit, they could not recover them in a later malpractice case.

Afterwords:

This case provides a thorough explication of the standing doctrine in the context of shareholder derivative suits.

The case turned on the nature of the plaintiff’s claims.  Clearly, they were suing derivatively (as opposed to individually) to “champion” the LLC’s rights.  As a result, any recovery in the case against Sidley would flow to the LLC – the entity of which plaintiffs were no longer members.

And while the plaintiffs did maintain their shareholder status for the duration of the underlying Sidley case, their decision to terminate their LLC membership interests before suing MW proved fatal to their legal malpractice claims.