Legal News

California appeals court upholds $941,000 legal malpractice verdict against Wilson Elser

By Jason Siegel

A California appeals court has upheld a $941,000 legal malpractice verdict against Wilson Elser Moskowitz Edelman & Dicker, but has thrown out $1.7 million of the original award given to the firm's former client.

The California Court of Appeal, Second District, on May 28 affirmed the $941,000 award to Cal-City Construction, a company that had hired Wilson Elser after the Los Angeles Unified School District removed the company from one construction project and refused to make payments on another.

According to the decision, Wilson Elser had advised the construction company to walk off the job on the second project. However, prior to the construction company's breach of contract trial against the school district, the law firm told the client that it should not have walked off the job, and that its only option was to settle under unfavorable terms.

In the malpractice action against Wilson Elser, the jury found the law firm liable for $2.5 million in damages, which included $941,000 in damages related to the adverse settlement and $1.7 million for lost future profits.

But the appeals court found that the construction company's evidence of lost profits was "speculative and uncertain," and that the lower court should have granted the law firm a partial judgment-notwithstanding-the-verdict motion at trial.

Thomas Hyland, managing partner of Wilson Elser's New York office, said the firm was evaluating the decision.

"We are disappointed that any part of the verdict against our firm was affirmed, but we are pleased that the majority of claim has been knocked out," Hyland said.

Wilson Elser has about 800 attorneys in 20 offices.

-- Leigh Jones

Full post as published by Legal Pad | LA on May 30, 2008 (boomark / email).