Opinion ID: 3018675
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Attorneys

Text: The District Court granted the motion of the Attorneys to dismiss because Duong’s amended complaint failed to allege facts showing that any of the attorney defendants were the proximate cause of the loss of Duong’s personal injury action. The Court agreed with the Attorneys that Duong was the cause of the loss by moving for a declaratory judgment in the personal injury action. Although the District Court did not analyze the proximate cause issue further, aside from its ruling that Pennsylvania would not have precluded Duong from maintaining her action for personal injuries under the circumstances, we note that Duong did not appeal the ruling of the Philadelphia court. Such an appeal would 6 have given a Pennsylvania appellate court the opportunity to note that neither Nationwide nor the Attorneys were in privity with Duong in her personal injury suit, so that the decision in the New Jersey action may not have barred the Pennsylvania suit brought by Duong against Masie. We choose not to conjecture whether Duong failed to take further steps to assert her personal injury claim against Masie because of a calculation that this suit against Nationwide and the Attorneys was more promising. It is sufficient for us to hold that the District Court did not err in ruling that Duong had not shown that any of the Attorneys were the proximate cause of the loss of Duong’s personal injury action. It follows that we will affirm the decision of the District Court. 7