Case Title: Pearce v. Schrimsher

Citation: 583 So. 2d 253

Docket Number: 

State: alabama

Court: Alabama Supreme Court

Date: 1991-05-03T00:00:00Z

Document:
583 So. 2d 253 (1991)
Charles L. PEARCE and Jolyn W. Pearce
v.
James Bruce SCHRIMSHER.
89-1832.

Supreme Court of Alabama.
May 3, 1991.
W. Clint Brown, Jr., Decatur, for appellants.
M. Keith Gann of Huie, Fernambucq & Stewart, Birmingham, for appellee.
HOUSTON, Justice.
This is a legal malpractice action. On May 14, 1990, Charles L. Pearce and his wife, Jolyn W. Pearce, filed a complaint in Madison Circuit Court against James B. Schrimsher, a practicing attorney in Huntsville, Alabama, alleging that they had incurred damages by closing a real estate transaction in reliance on an erroneous title opinion that had been provided to them by Schrimsher. The trial court dismissed the complaint on the ground that the Pearces' claim was barred by the statute of limitations set out in Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-574 (part of the Alabama Legal Services Liability Act, Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-570 et seq., referred to hereinafter as "the Act"). The Pearces appealed.
The standard of review applicable to motions to dismiss is well settled:
Fontenot v. Bramlett, 470 So. 2d 669, 671 (Ala.1985). (Emphasis in original.)
The Pearces' action was commenced on May 14, 1990, almost five years after July 3, 1985, the date on which the transaction was allegedly closed and their cause of action would have accrued, and more than two years after April 12, 1988, the effective date of the Act; therefore, it is time-barred under § 6-5-574. See Michael v. Beasley, 282 So. 2d 245 (Ala.1991). Accordingly, the dismissal of the Pearces' complaint was proper.
AFFIRMED.
HORNSBY, C.J., and MADDOX, SHORES, STEAGALL, KENNEDY and INGRAM, JJ., concur.