Justia Professional Malpractice & Ethics Opinion Summaries

Pauline Bennett, the settlor of a revocable living trust, engaged attorney Thomas Gentile to draft her estate planning documents. Initially, the trust instrument provided for the distribution of her properties, including a specific property, Wissahican, to her daughter Audrey upon her death. Later, due to concerns about Audrey's financial mismanagement, Pauline amended the trust to remove Audrey as a beneficiary and intended to sell Wissahican to fund her care. After Pauline's death, a dispute arose between her daughters, Madelyn and Audrey, over the ownership of Wissahican.The Circuit Court for Montgomery County ruled that the 2017 trust instrument, which provided Wissahican to Audrey, was still in effect, and thus Audrey was entitled to the property. Madelyn, as the successor trustee, then pursued claims against Gentile for legal malpractice, alleging that his negligent drafting of the 2019 trust instrument caused her to lose Wissahican. The circuit court granted summary judgment in favor of Gentile, holding that the strict privity rule barred Madelyn's claims and that she was not a third-party beneficiary of the attorney-client relationship between Pauline and Gentile.The Supreme Court of Maryland reviewed the case and affirmed the circuit court's decision. The court held that the strict privity rule, as established in Noble v. Bruce, remains good law, meaning that a third party not in privity with an attorney cannot sue for negligence absent fraud or collusion. The court also concluded that Madelyn did not qualify as a third-party beneficiary because the primary intent of Pauline's engagement with Gentile was to ensure her own financial security and to exclude Audrey, not to benefit Madelyn directly. Therefore, Madelyn's claims against Gentile were barred, and the summary judgment in favor of Gentile was affirmed. View "Bennett v. Gentile" on Justia Law

In this professional malpractice action, the Supreme Court vacated the judgment of the appellate court reversing the summary judgment of the trial court in favor of Defendant because Plaintiff could not prove damages and remanded this case to the circuit court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion, holding that remand was required.Plaintiff, a medical and surgical practice, retained Defendant, an accounting firm, in 2013 and terminated Defendant's services in 2015. In 2018, Plaintiff sued Defendant to recover damages for lost profits. Plaintiff designated a certificated public accountant (CPA) as an expert witness, who used the "before-and-after" method to calculate Plaintiff's lost profits. In 2021, the CPA issued updated calculations reflecting "normalizing adjustments" that she had made. The trial court excluded the CPA's expert testimony based on its application of the Daubert-Rochkind factors. The appellate court reversed the trial court's exclusion of the CPA's testimony and remanded the case for further proceedings. The Supreme Court remanded the cause, holding that the trial court erred in its consideration of the normalizing adjustments as reflecting on the reliability of the CPA's methodology, as opposed to the credibility of the CPA herself. View "Katz, Abosch, Windesheim, Gersham & Freedman, P.A. v. Parkway Neuroscience & Spine Institute, LLC" on Justia Law