Family Law

Mississippi Supreme Court finds law firm not liable for partner's affair with client's wife

By Robert M. Kisselburgh, Esq.

Law firm escapes liability for partner's affair

This last week the Mississippi Supreme Court issued an opinion reversing a Hinds County Circuit Court's ruling in an alienation of affection lawsuit involving an attorney and his law firm. You might ask how a law firm became a defendant in an alienation of affection lawsuit. Well, one of the firm's partners had an affair with the plaintiff's wife. Worse, the plaintiff said the partner was his attorney at the time of the affair. When the plaintiff found out about the affair (a point disputed in the testimony), he decided to bring a lawsuit against the attorney and his employer, the law firm.

Normally this would be a straight-forward case as the Mississippi Supreme Court has previously ruled that an employer cannot be held responsible for an affair of one of its employees. This makes sense given an extramarital affair is not in the course and scope of one's employment and does nothing in furtherance of the employer's business. And that is what the Court ruled especially given there was no evidence that anyone at the law firm knew about the affair. The Court also ruled that summary judgment was proper for the other claims against the law firm.

What made this case different is a lawyer owes his client a fiduciary duty. If an attorney violates that fiduciary duty, then the attorney can be held liable. And in some circumstances, the law firm of the attorney can be held liable. That is what the plaintiff was attempting to prove in this case. Essentially, he was arguing that the attorney breached his fiduciary duty by having an affair with his wife. The Supreme Court disagreed. One judge dissented on the fiduciary duty claim, stating it was a jury question. I agree. Two judges did not participate in the opinion.

Moral of the story: In an alienation of affection lawsuit, you are not going to be able to sue the employer of the paramour.

Reported by Robert Kisselburgh, Mississippi Divorce Lawyer

Full post as published by Mississippi Family Law Blog on June 12, 2010 (boomark / email).