Opinion ID: 2071023
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Balancing of Factors Theory

Text: Forty years ago, the Supreme Court of California began the trend of alternative approaches to the strict privity rule when it first formulated its policy-based balancing of factors theory in Biakanja v. Irving, 49 Cal.2d 647, 320 P.2d 16, 19 (1958). The California court later modified the balancing of factors theory in the context of an attorney malpractice case in Lucas v. Hamm, 56 Cal.2d 583, 15 Cal.Rptr. 821, 364 P.2d 685 (1961), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 987, 82 S.Ct. 603, 7 L.Ed.2d 525 (1962). In Lucas, the court addressed the issue of whether the beneficiaries of a will had a cause of action in negligence against the attorney who drafted the will. Id. In determining whether an attorney will be held liable to a nonclient, the court noted that it will consider the following factors: the extent to which the transaction was intended to affect the plaintiff, the foreseeability of harm to him, the degree of certainty that the plaintiff suffered injury, the closeness of the connection between the defendant's conduct and the injury, and the policy of preventing future harm. Lucas, 15 Cal.Rptr. at 823, 364 P.2d at 687. An additional factor considered by the court was whether recognizing liability in such cases would impose an undue burden on the legal profession. Lucas, 15 Cal.Rptr. at 824, 364 P.2d at 688. Although the court recognized that the amount of liability in some cases could be large and unpredictable, the court concluded that no undue burden would be placed on the profession, especially since a conclusion otherwise would result in the innocent beneficiary bearing the loss. Id. Despite the lack of privity between the beneficiaries and the attorney who drafted the will, the beneficiaries could maintain an action in tort against the attorney. [5] Some jurisdictions have followed the Lucas approach in the will drafting or estate planning context. See, e.g., Creighton University v. Kleinfeld, 919 F.Supp. 1421, 1426 (E.D.Cal.1995); Auric v. Continental Cas. Co., 111 Wis.2d 507, 331 N.W.2d 325, 329 (1983). This Court has declined to adopt this balancing of factors approach in the past, and we see no valid reason to adopt such a test now. As we noted in Flaherty, this approach has not been universally accepted by other jurisdictions. The balancing of factors approach has been criticized as being too broad, see Pelham v. Griesheimer, 92 Ill.2d 13, 64 Ill.Dec. 544, 548, 440 N.E.2d 96, 100 (1982), and so unworkable that it has led to ad hoc determinations and inconsistent results. Guy v. Liederbach, 501 Pa. 47, 459 A.2d 744, 749 (1983). We agree and therefore decline to adopt the balancing of factors approach in the instant cases.