Opinion ID: 712938
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The state law claims against the attorney defendants.

Text: 32 The plaintiffs' state law tort claims against the attorney defendants break down as follows. Vector, the corporate plaintiff, sued for trespass, conversion, abuse of process, and malicious use of civil process. The individual plaintiffs sued for invasion of privacy, abuse of process, and malicious use of civil process. The plaintiffs' amended complaint repeatedly alleges that the attorney defendants acted maliciously in their pursuit and execution of the ex parte order, that they shared the malicious motives of their client, FTSS, that they improperly handled personal and confidential information, and that they exceeded the scope of the order, all with resulting harm. 33 Under Ohio law, attorneys enjoy immunity from liability to third persons arising from acts performed in good faith on behalf of, and with the knowledge of, their clients. There is no immunity, however, where attorneys act maliciously. Scholler v. Scholler, 10 Ohio St.3d 98, 462 N.E.2d 158, 163 (1984). 34 The district court stated that it had no facts before it on the issues of good faith or client knowledge. The court then proceeded to analyze several Ohio cases, and it held that the plaintiffs had not pleaded facts sufficient to demonstrate malice and overcome the defendants' immunity. The court cited no authority, however, for the heightened pleading standard it imposed on the plaintiffs. 35 Under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b), malice may be averred generally. This is so because malice, like the other mental conditions which may be averred generally under Rule 9(b), is difficult to demonstrate at the pleading stage of litigation. 5 Charles A. Wright & Arthur R. Miller, Federal Practice and Procedure § 1301 (1990). Moreover, under Rule 8(a)(2), a claim need only be a short and plain statement ... showing that the pleader is entitled to relief. An attempted demonstration of malice in a complaint would, in all likelihood, be neither short nor plain. 36 The liberal federal pleading rules are directly on point, and those rules enable a plaintiff (as was done here) to allege malice coupled with tortious acts and survive a motion to dismiss. Thus, the district court erred in dismissing the plaintiffs' state law claims against the attorneys on a Rule 12(b)(6) motion. The plaintiffs here may struggle to establish malice, but accepting all of the plaintiffs' allegations--including those of malice--as true, they could perhaps prove a set of facts that would merit relief on their state law tort claims. At this point in the litigation, that is sufficient. 37