Summary Judgment in Favor of Attorney Affirmed by Court of Appeals
May 03, 2019
Mike O’Neill and Marian Drenth recently prevailed before the Indiana Court of Appeals in a legal malpractice case where the Court affirmed summary judgment in favor of a lawyer and his firm. See, Gates v. O’Connor, 111 N.E.3d 215 (Ind. Ct. App. 2018). The Gates Plaintiffs sued their deceased father’s attorneys for failing to finalize the decedent’s divorce before he died, thereby allowing his wife to allegedly take a larger share of the Estate. According to Plaintiffs, the surviving children would have inherited much more of the Estate if the divorce had been finalized and the wife’s (step-mother) recovery would have been limited to the terms of a prenuptial agreement. The Court of Appeals disagreed and affirmed the trial court’s summary judgment order. On March 1, 2019, the Supreme Court unanimously denied Plaintiff’s Petition to Transfer. A copy of the Court of Appeals Opinion can be accessed here. For more information about OMW’s legal malpractice defense practice, contact Mike O’Neill by email at [email protected].