Opinion ID: 1681759
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Timeliness of Complaints

Text: Price argues this Court should reverse the judgment because, if the plaintiffs sustained any injury, that injury was sustained before the statutory period. The IRS dispute arose by March 1994. Ragland advised Buddy in August 1994 that the estate intended to hold TBC responsible for any financial loss caused by the stock valuation in 1986. Hoffman testified that when Price began his work on the IRS dispute, Price was representing parties who had conflicting financial interests; according to Hoffman, those conflicts existed during Price's service on the stock redemption and continued into 1994. Price argues that the plaintiffs' actions filed in November 1996 were untimely because, he says, he represented parties with conflicting interests no later than August 1994more than two years before the actions were filed. We conclude that the actions were not time-barred. Although Price performed services on the IRS dispute before the statutory period, there was substantial evidence from which the jury could have inferred that, under the plaintiffs' theory, their first injury from Price's malpractice in relation to the IRS dispute occurred within the statutory period. Price initially represented the estate in the IRS dispute. Thereafter, he complied with Ragland's instructions to consult representatives of TBC on matters of mutual interest to the estate and TBC. Most significantly, however, the record indicates that, in Price's November 22, 1994, correspondence, he advised the estate, TBC, and the children's trust (through Buddy, whom Price was treating as trustee) about their respective obligations concerning the IRS dispute. In that letter he also first suggested a strategy that all parties contest the position taken by the IRS in that stock-valuation dispute. [20] Under the plaintiffs' theory, their actions were not facially time-barred because the jury could have found that the plaintiffs first suffered injury in relation to the IRS dispute as a result of the advice Price rendered on November 22, 1994a point within the statutory period.