Case Title: LEAK-GILBERT v. FAHLE

Citation: 

Docket Number: 97540

State: oklahoma

Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

Date: 2002-07-16T00:00:00Z

Document:
LEAK-GILBERT v. FAHLE  LEAK-GILBERT v. FAHLE 2002 OK 66 55 P.3d 1054 Case Number: 97540 Decided: 07/16/2002 THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF OKLAHOMA ALEECIA LEAK-GILBERT and DOLCIE LEAK, Plaintiffs v. PAULINE FAHLE, Defendant CERTIFIED QUESTIONS OF LAW FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT WESTERN DISTRICT OF OKLAHOMA Honorable Ralph G. Thompson, Judge ¶0 The United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma certified the following questions pursuant to the Uniform Certification of Questions of Law Act, QUESTIONS ANSWERED. Timothy A. Heefner, Kirk Olson, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Plaintiffs John B. Hayes, Robert D. Dennis, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, for Defendant KAUGER, J: ¶1 We are asked to answer two questions: 1) whether, in the absence of a specific request by the client, an attorney owes a duty to the client or to the beneficiaries named in the client's will to conduct an investigation into the client's heirs independent of, or in addition to, the information provided by the client; and 2) whether the residual beneficiaries under a decedent's will have a cause of action for legal malpractice against the attorney who drafted the will under a theory of [55 P.3d 1055] negligence or breach of contract when the will fails to identify all the decedent's heirs? We hold that: 1) when an attorney is retained to prepare a will, the attorney's duty to prepare the will according to the testator's wishes does not ordinarily include an investigation of a client's heirs independent of, or in addition to, the information provided by the client, unless the client requests such an investigation; and 2) an intended will beneficiary may maintain a legal malpractice action under either negligence or contract theories against the drafter when the will fails to identify all the decedent's heirs as a result of the attorney's substandard professional performance. FACTS ¶2 This cause concerns a dispute over the will of a widower, Edward Leak (Mr. Leak/decedent), which was executed in Taloga, Oklahoma, on February 4, 1997. In early 1997, Mr. Leak hired the defendant, Pauline Fahle (Fahle/lawyer) to update his will. According to the lawyer, Mr. Leak gave her a copy of his existing will. He told her that he wanted to change his personal representative to his daughter-in-law, Jolene Leak, the wife of his deceased son, and that he also wanted her to receive his gun collection. ¶3 The lawyer insists that Mr. Leak identified his only heirs as the children of his deceased son (Alvin Troy Leak), Alvin James Leak, and the plaintiffs, Aleecia Leak-Gilbert and Dolcie Leak (beneficiaries). Mr. Leak also informed the lawyer that he wanted to disinherit the grandson. Consequently, the lawyer prepared a will, made Mr. Leak's requested changes and left the grandson one dollar and gave the granddaughters equal shares of the remainder of his estate. ¶4 After the Mr. Leak died in December of 1999, the will was submitted for probate. The probate proceeding revealed that Mr. Leak had four additional grandchildren by another deceased son, Clifford Wayne Leak, who were not mentioned in Mr. Leak's will. Consequently, the probate court treated the grandchildren as unintentionally omitted heirs, and it divided the estate among the grandchildren as if the decedent had died intestate. ¶5 On June 22, 2001, the beneficiaries filed a legal malpractice action in federal district court against Fahle, asserting that she was negligent, and that she had breached the contract with the decedent because she failed to properly prepare his will according to his intentions. The beneficiaries allege that Fahle did not complete an investigation into the existence of the decedent's children or grandchildren. They insist that Fahle should have reviewed all of the files of her sister ---- the lawyer who had probated decedent's wife's will in 1989 which would have disclosed the omitted grandchildren. ¶6 The lawyer answered the beneficiaries' complaint and insisted that, while her sister may have handled the probate of the decedent's wife, she died in 1990 and she and her sister never practiced law together. She did admit that they shared an office space for a very short period prior to her sister's death, and that her sister's files remain stored in the office building. ¶7 On December 6, 2001, the lawyer moved for summary judgment. Recognizing that state law is determinative of Fahle's liability and that Oklahoma has not addressed the precise issue presented, but that a split of authority exists in other states, [55 P.3d 1056] I. ¶8 WHEN AN ATTORNEY IS RETAINED TO PREPARE A WILL, THE ATTORNEY'S DUTY TO PREPARE THE WILL ACCORDING TO THE TESTATOR'S WISHES DOES NOT ORDINARILY INCLUDE AN INVESTIGATION OF A CLIENT'S HEIRS INDEPENDENT OF, OR IN ADDITION TO, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED BY THE CLIENT, UNLESS THE CLIENT REQUESTS SUCH AN INVESTIGATION. ¶9 The beneficiaries assert that an attorney's duty when preparing testamentary documents includes: 1) inquiring into the client's heirs at law; 2) offering a proper explanation and advising the client as to what is meant by heirs at law and the significance of including all heirs at law in a will; and 3) confirming the heir information by conducting an investigation into a client's heirs independent of, or in addition to, the information provided by the client, even when not requested to do so. The beneficiaries offer no authority recognizing such a duty.4 ¶10 The lawyer does not dispute that the drafter of a will has a duty, absent a specific request by the client, to inquire, explain, or advise a client regarding heirs at law. Rather, she argues that the lawyer has no duty to confirm the client's information by conducting an independent investigation into the client's heirs. The lawyer cites to Stangland v. Brock, 109 Wash. 2d 675 , 747 P.2d 464 and Levenworth v. Mathes, 38 Conn. App. 476, 661 A.2d 632 as persuasive authority in support of her argument. ¶11 Lawyers are required to exercise ordinary professional skill and diligence in rendering their professional services.5 Accompanying every contract is a common-law duty to perform with care, skill, reasonable experience and faithfulness the thing agreed to be done.6 Duty of care is a question of law described as the total of policy considerations which lead to the conclusion that the plaintiff is entitled to protection.7 If a duty exists, the trier of fact then determines whether a violation of that duty has occurred.8 ¶12 In Stangland v. Brock, supra, an attorney drafted a will for a client leaving all of the client's real property to certain beneficiaries. Three years later, the client sold the real property and another attorney in the same firm prepared the real estate contract. The sale of the real property affected the disposition of the estate. After the testator died, the beneficiaries brought legal malprac-[55 P.3d 1057] tice actions against the attorneys asserting that both attorneys, at the time the real estate contract was drafted, had a duty to advise the client that the sale of the property could affect his estate plan. ¶13 The Stangland court determined that holding attorneys to such a duty would expand the obligation of a lawyer who drafts a will beyond reasonable limits. It recognized that the time and expense which would be required for the attorney to monitor the testator's activities with respect to his property would prevent the attorney from providing reliable and economical services, and that it would constitute an overwhelming burden on the attorney's practice as a whole. Additionally, holding the attorney to such a duty would place an unreasonable burden on the attorney, would markedly increase the cost of providing legal services, and would impute knowledge of the contents of the client's will. ¶14 In Levenworth v. Mathes, supra, an attorney drafted a will pursuant to the client's wishes which included the distribution of certain assets. When the testator died, the assets of the estate were insufficient to satisfy the specific bequests to the beneficiaries. The beneficiaries brought a negligence action against the attorney. The court held that an attorney owes no duty to will beneficiaries to ensure the existence of testamentary assets when drafting a will. It recognized that although courts have allowed intended beneficiaries to maintain a cause of action against attorneys who fail to draft a will in conformity with a client's wishes, the malpractice claims always focus on errors in the drafting and execution of the will rather than misinformation from clients. ¶15 The reasoning behind Strangland and Levenworth, applies here, where it appears that the attorney may have been given incomplete or inaccurate information.9 We agree with the beneficiaries that when an attorney is hired to prepare a will, the attorney's obligation is to: 1) inquire into the client's heirs at law; 2) offer a proper explanation; 3) advise the client as to what is meant by heirs at law; 4) explain the significance of including all heirs at law in a will; and 5) prepare a will according to the client's directions. ¶16 However, to hold that an attorney has a duty to confirm heir information by conducting an investigation into a client's heirs independent of, or in addition to, the information provided by the client, even when not requested to do so, would expand the obligation of the lawyer beyond reasonable limits. The duty between an attorney and third persons affected by the attorney-client agreement should not be any greater than the duty between the attorney and the client. Although some exceptional circumstances might exist which would give rise to such a duty, none are present here. Consequently, we hold that, unless the client requests such an investigation, when an attorney is retained to draft a will, the attorney's duty to prepare a will according to the testator's wishes does not include the duty to investigate into a client's heirs independent of, or in addition to, the information provided by the client. [55 P.3d 1058] II. ¶17 AN INTENDED WILL BENEFICIARY MAY MAINTAIN A LEGAL MALPRACTICE ACTION UNDER NEGLIGENCE OR CONTRACT THEORIES WHEN THE WILL FAILS TO IDENTIFY ALL THE DECEDENT'S HEIRS AS A RESULT OF THE ATTORNEY'S SUBSTANDARD PROFESSIONAL PERFORMANCE. ¶18 The beneficiaries argue that: 1) liability for legal malpractice should extend to intended beneficiaries of a will when the will does not carry out the testator's expressed intent and does not identify all of the decedent's heirs; and 2) Oklahoma should follow the majority rule allowing intended beneficiaries to assert malpractice claims based on contract or tort theories of recovery. The lawyer concedes that an attorney could be guilty of malpractice if the client revealed necessary heirship information and the attorney failed to include it in the will. Nevertheless, she asserts that if the client fails to fully and accurately disclose his/her heirs, no malpractice action exists. ¶19 We note at the outset that the trial court must resolve the disputed fact questions which exist regarding whether the client disclosed all of his heirs and whether the lawyer: 1) inquired into the client's heirs at law; and 2) offered a proper explanation and advised the client as to what is meant by heirs at law and the significance of including all heirs at law in a will. Nevertheless, the question remains whether liability may be extended to will beneficiaries and under what theory they may assert their cause of action.10 ¶20 Accompanying every contract is a common law duty to perform the contract with care, skill, reasonable experience and faithfulness the thing agreed to be done. A negligent failure to perform these duties is a tort and a breach of contract.11 An action for breach of contract and an action in tort may arise from the same set of facts.12 At common law, privity of contract was required before a tort action could arise from a breach of duty created by contract ie. limiting liability to contracting parties.13 However, liability for negligent breach of a contract with a third party is not necessarily dependent upon a pre-existing privity in legal relationship between the person injured and the person causing the injury.14 ¶21 This Court has previously addressed the extension of an attorney's liability, in the absence of privity, to third party, non-client, will beneficiaries in Hesser v. Central National Bank & Trust Co. of Enid, 1998 OK 15, 956 P.2d 864 . In Hesser, we held that a will beneficiary could maintain a negligence action against an attorney for failure to have the will properly executed. ¶22 Hesser involved an attorney who prepared a will for a client and then failed to properly execute the will. In the probate proceeding, the heirs at law contested [55 P.3d 1059] the will, arguing that it was not properly executed. Subsequently, the matter was settled by agreement. Nevertheless, one of the beneficiaries under the will brought a legal malpractice action, asserting that the attorney was negligent in failing to properly execute the will. It was uncontested that the plaintiff was a third-party beneficiary to the agreement. ¶23 The Hesser Court recognized that: 1) as part of the agreement to prepare the will, the attorney was under a common law duty to perform with care, skill, reasonable expediency and faithfulness to properly execute the will; and 2) a duty created by a contract may be extended to a third party when the contract is made expressly for the benefit of a third-party, non-client beneficiary and the harm to the beneficiary is foreseeable. The Court determined that intended beneficiaries of a will could maintain an action against the lawyer because, as a matter of law, it was foreseeable that an intended beneficiary under the terms of a will could be harmed by an attorney's failure to have the will properly executed. ¶24 A few jurisdictions refuse to allow non-client, intended beneficiaries to bring such malpractice actions.15 However, our decision in Hesser is in accord with the majority of jurisdictions which recognize that intended beneficiaries harmed by a lawyer's malpractice may maintain a cause of action against lawyers who draft testamentary documents even though no attorney-client relationship exists.16 Some of these courts have [55 P.3d 1060] recognized such actions as negligence actions,17 while others have determined that in an intended will beneficiary may proceed under either negligence or contract theories.18 [55 P.3d 1061]Those allowing an intended beneficiary of a will to assert a third party breach of contract theory generally recognize that when such a breach occurs, named intended beneficiaries of a will also hold third party beneficiary status under the agreement between the testator and the attorney to draft a will according to the testator's wishes.19 ¶26 Hesser teaches that when a lawyer undertakes to fulfill the testamentary instructions of a client, the lawyer must be aware that any consequences flowing from the lawyer's negligence will have an impact on the named beneficiaries. The failure of a testamentary scheme deprives the intended beneficiaries of their bequests. If the failure is due to substandard professional performance, it is reasonable to conclude that the injured parties should recover against the lawyer who caused their harm. Dabney teaches that when a third party, non-client is the person specifically intended to be benefitted by the legal services, the non-client may assert a beach of contract action against the lawyer. ¶27 Our decisions in Hesser and Dabney are consistent with those jurisdictions which allow intended will beneficiaries to assert malpractice claims. Consequently, we hold that an intended will beneficiary may maintain a legal malpractice action under negligence or contract theories against an attorney when the will fails to identify all of the decedent's heirs as a result of the attorney's substandard professional performance. CONCLUSION ¶28 When an attorney is hired to prepare a will according to the client's directions, unless the client requests such an investigation, the attorney's obligation does not ordinarily include the duty to investigate the existence of a client's heirs independent of, or in addition to, the information provided by the client. Nevertheless, we recognize that when the will fails to identify all of the decedent's heirs as a result of the attorney's substandard professional performance, an intended will beneficiary may maintain a legal malpractice action under negligence or contract theories against an attorney. [55 P.3d 1062] ¶29 WATT, V.C.J., HODGES, LAVENDER, OPALA, KAUGER, SUMMERS, BOUDREAU, WINCHESTER, JJ., concur. ¶30 HARGRAVE, C.J., concurs in part; dissents in part. [ 55 P.3d 1063 ] FOOT