Opinion ID: 1779625
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Partial Summary Judgment and Motion to Withdraw Responses to Requests for Admissions

Text: ¶ 9. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of Bowie on the issue of liability. The trial court found the Defendants were served with process concerning the request for admissions and denied the motion to set aside admissions. The trial court stated: [I]t appears to the Court that they were served  Byrd  Byrd law firm and Katrina Gibbs were served. No response was filed. I understand what you say Mr. Martin [counsel for the Defendants], about why would I file an answer and not file a motions responses [sic]. I've seen it happen a lot of times. With  Maybe they were overlooked, I don't know. But it does show a pattern, I think. The plaintiff's Motion for Partial Summary Judgment will be granted as to the negligence issue but denied as to the monetary value. . . . ¶ 10. The Defendants argue the trial court erred by denying the motion to withdraw default responses to requests for admissions. The Defendants argue they never received the request for admissions. Gibbs, Byrd and Precious Martin (Martin), counsel for Gibbs, Byrd and the Firm, all gave affidavits stating they never received any requests for admissions. ¶ 11. The trial court papers contain preprinted summonses. The summonses state, in part: Notice is also hereby given of service of Plaintiffs' First Requests for Production of Documents Propounded to Defendant and responses must be mailed or delivered within forty-five (45) days from the date of delivery of this summons and discovery. The summonses for Gibbs and Byrd also had the words First Set of Interrogatories & Requests for Admissions handwritten around the notice paragraph. The Defendants claim they did not know about the request for admissions until Bowie filed the motion for partial summary judgment. ¶ 12. However, during the hearing, a number of witnesses testified about the issue of receipt of the requests for admissions. Gary Windham, the process server, stated that he served Gibbs personally, and served Christy Hall, Byrd's secretary. On cross-examination, Windham could not identify who hand wrote the words First Set of Interrogatories & Requests for Admissions on the summonses. He also did not know whether those words were on the summonses at the time he served the summonses. Later, he stated that he served whatever was written on the returns. The preprinted proofs of service signed by Windham showed that the summonses, amended complaint, interrogatories and requests for admissions were served. The proofs of service were completely typed, unlike the summonses. There was no handwritten addition concerning the requests for admissions on the returns. ¶ 13. Suzanne Keys, an attorney that worked for the Firm, testified she was unfamiliar with the case, but did participate in communications regarding it, as evidenced by emails between attorney Abdeen and herself. One of the e-mails, dated May 13, 2004, from Abdeen, contained attachments which included the requests for admissions, which were also discussed in the text of the email. Moreover, Keys stated that she received the May 13, 2004, e-mail, although she claims she did not open any of the attachments. In an email dated May 27, 2004, Keys asked Abdeen, per Gibbs request, for an extension to file an answer. In an email dated May 28, 2004, Abdeen confirmed a telephone conversation between Keys and Abdeen regarding an agreement to grant an extension to file a responsive pleading and responses to discovery: This email will confirm the discussion we just had wherein I agreed that Katrina Gibbs, Mr. Byrd, and the Byrd firm can have an additional 20 days to serve a responsive pleading in the referenced case. The responses to the discovery served with the complaint will be served at the same time the answers will be due. At the hearing on Bowie's motion for partial summary judgment, Keys admitted to receiving this email. ¶ 14. The trial court held an evidentiary hearing pursuant to the Defendant's motion to withdraw default responses pursuant to M.R.C.P. 36(b). The record reflects that the agent's process returns showed service of process. Furthermore, the correspondence between Keys and Abdeen reflects notice to the Defendants. The Defendants' meager proof or reasons given to the trial court for their failure to respond to Bowie's request for admissions were soundly rejected. The evidence submitted to the trial judge was reasonable and certainly not manifestly wrong under the applicable standard of review. See Punzo v. Jackson County, 861 So.2d 340, 343 (Miss.2003). This Court is thus duly bound to respect the lower court's findings of fact when they are supported by reasonable evidence in the record and are not manifestly wrong. See Allied Steel Corp. v. Cooper, 607 So.2d 113, 119 (Miss.1992). Here, the trial judge did not abuse his discretion, and the evidence reasonably supports the grant of summary judgment on the issue the defendants' negligence based on the defendants' failure to respond to plaintiff's request for admissions.
¶ 15. Notwithstanding the defendants' failure to properly respond to Bowie's request for admissions, we find the defendants were negligent as a matter of law. As the defendants correctly assert in their brief, to prevail, one claiming negligence in a legal malpractice action must prove by a preponderance of the evidence (1) the existence of an attorney-client relationship, (2) negligence on the part of the lawyer in handling his client's affairs entrusted to him, and (3) proximate cause of the injury. Wilbourn v. Stennett, Wilkinson & Ward, 687 So.2d 1205, 1215 (Miss. 1996); Hickox v. Holleman, 502 So.2d 626, 633 (Miss.1987) (superseded on other grounds). Moreover, [c]learly established law provides that expert testimony is necessary to establish the breach of a duty of care in a claim of legal malpractice. Lane v. Oustalet, 873 So.2d 92, 99 (Miss. 2004); Hickox v. Holleman, 502 So.2d at 635; Dean v. Conn, 419 So.2d 148, 150 (Miss.1982). ¶ 16. However, this Court has carved out some exceptions to the general rule that expert testimony is required in a legal malpractice claim. Applicable to the case at bar is the exception found in Hickox, 502 So.2d at 635. There, this Court held an expert is not required when the attorney's conduct is negligent as a matter of law and the plaintiff is entitled to a directed verdict on liability. Id. In Hickox, this Court held the attorney's failure to file suit prior to the expiration of the statute of limitations constituted negligence as a matter of law, where the attorney admitted he never performed research to determine the nature of Hickox's claim. Id. at 636. See also Thompson v. Erving's Hatcheries, Inc., 186 So.2d 756, 759 (Miss. 1966). ¶ 17. In discussing the need for experts for legal malpractice actions, we stated: Moreover, attorneys involved in malpractice actions must always remember there is a pragmatic difference between the trial of other professional malpractice cases and a legal malpractice case. In the former class, the lawyers and judges are laymen. In professional malpractice cases, excepting extreme cases, we rely upon experts for guidance. The attorney who finds himself the defendant in a legal malpractice case, however, has a judge and the trial attorneys who are already experts. Hickox, 502 So.2d at 636. Furthermore, [i]t does not require expert testimony to establish the negligence of an attorney who is ignorant of the applicable statute of limitations or who sits idly by and causes the client to lose the value of his claim for relief. Id. (quoting George v. Caton, 93 N.M. 370, 600 P.2d 822, 829 (N.M.Ct.App. 1979)). ¶ 18. In this case, the question becomes whether Bowie's claim of legal malpractice calls for expert testimony in order to establish that the Defendants breached their duty of care. In Bowie, the Defendants neither timely filed a designation of an expert, nor provided any excuse as to why they did not timely file the designation. Bowie, 861 So.2d at 1042. We find the facts in this case are analogous to the facts in Hickox. An attorney who fails to designate an expert by a court-mandated deadline and does not provide any reason for doing so, is negligent as a matter of law, as was the attorney in Hickox. Therefore, Bowie is entitled to partial summary judgment as to the Defendants' liability.