Legal Malpractice

California Legal Malpractice and Mama Cass

By (Andrew Lavoott Bluestone)

We write that legal malpractice issues are everywhere, and might surface in any setting.  Here is a story from the National Law Journal about a 35 year old missing will of Mama Cass, and whether the attorneys who had it in their files were negligent in not producing it back when it counted.

Leigh Jones reports: 'The siblings of Mama Cass are suing Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, claiming that a will recently discovered in the law firm's archives shows they were cheated out of a share of the dead singer's estate 35 years ago.

The suit alleges that Mitchell Silberberg in 1967 prepared a will for Ellen Naomi Cohen, a member of the 1960s quartet The Mamas & The Papas, but that the firm told relatives when she died that a will could not be found.

The estate of Ms. Cohen, popularly known as Mama Cass Elliot, was distributed according to California intestate law, which, the plaintiffs allege, deprived them of part of the estate. Mama Cass died in 1974 at age 33 in a London hotel room from an apparent heart attack."
 

"Mitchell Silberberg responded to requests for comment in an e-mail. "Plaintiffs' allegation that MSK concealed the existence of a will is utterly absurd," the firm said. "There are no facts that support plaintiffs' allegation that MSK lost the will, breached its fiduciary duty or made any misrepresentations whatsoever about the existence or whereabouts of the will." It added that the lawsuit was barred by the statute of limitations.

The lawsuit claims malpractice, negligent misrepresentation and fraud. It alleges that the law firm knew that a will existed but represented that it did not. It also alleges that the firm had conflicts of interest in simultaneously representing the estate and Mama Cass' creditors."
 

Full post as published by New York Attorney Malpractice Blog on January 11, 2011 (boomark / email).