Court Opinion

ID: 9775919
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 19:12:44.01706+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:32:32.025663
License: Public Domain

PHILLIPS, Chief Justice,
delivered a dissenting opinion, joined by
GAMMAGE and SPECTOR, Justices.
The Court bases today’s holding in large part on its belief that all criminal acts are so reprehensible that permitting someone convicted of a crime to recover against his or her former attorney for professional negligence “would shock the public conscience, engender disrespect for courts and generally discredit the administration of justice.” Supra at 497. The public morality is thus protected at the expense of shielding all criminal defense attorney malpractice, no matter how egregious, from any redress in the civil justice system. While I agree with the Court’s approach in those cases where there is some doubt about the effect of the alleged malpractice, I believe it proves too much in those unusual circumstances where the convicted defendant can offer particularly probative evidence that there would have been no conviction but for the attorney’s malpractice. Because Peeler’s summary judgment proof, if believed by the finder of fact, would meet this extraordinary *501burden, I would reverse the judgment of the court of appeals and remand this cause to the trial court for further proceedings.
In most cases the law should not permit a person convicted of a crime to recover for legal malpractice. Allowing any disappointed convicted criminal to sue his or her former attorney would wreak havoc on the orderly administration of justice, impeding the delivery of legal representation guaranteed by the Sixth Amendment to anyone charged with an offense punishable by imprisonment. See Argersinger v. Hamlin, 407 U.S. 25, 37, 92 S.Ct. 2006, 2012-13, 32 L.Ed.2d 530 (1972); Gideon v. Wainwright, 372 U.S. 335, 344, 83 S.Ct. 792, 796-97, 9 L.Ed.2d 799 (1963). If the law did not impose a substantial burden on convicted criminals seeking to sue their attorneys for professional negligence, most criminal convictions might simply be a prelude to a civil malpractice suit. Our civil justice system cannot and should not be available to hear such claims.
The Court’s position, however, is that any person convicted of a crime must establish his or her innocence in order to maintain a civil malpractice suit. As the Court explains:
Because of public policy, we ... hold that plaintiffs who have been convicted of a criminal offense may negate the sole proximate cause bar to their claim for legal malpractice in connection with that conviction only if they have been exonerated on direct appeal, through post-conviction relief, or otherwise.
Supra at 497. To support this absolutist position, the Court relies on decisions from at least ten other states, which hold that a plaintiffs criminal conduct is solely responsible for the fine, prison sentence, or social stigma resulting from his or her conviction.
None of these cases, however, presents a situation analogous to Peeler’s. In particular, in none of those cases would the allegations of malpractice, if true, conclusively have established that the former criminal defendant would have avoided conviction but for the attorney’s malpractice. In Glenn v. Aiken, 409 Mass. 699, 569 N.E.2d 783 (1991), for example, the plaintiffs criminal attorney failed to object to an erroneous jury instruction and the plaintiff was convicted. Id. 569 N.E.2d at 784. In the subsequent malpractice trial, the court held that the plaintiff was required to prove his innocence of the underlying criminal charge to establish causation since it was unclear whether the jury in his criminal trial, even if properly instructed, would have acquitted him. Id. 569 N.E.2d at 787. Likewise, in Weiner v. Mitchell, Silberberg & Knupp, 114 Cal.App.3d 39, 170 Cal.Rptr. 533 (1981), the plaintiff sued his former criminal attorneys for failing to apprise him of serious conflicts of interest. Id. 170 Cal.Rptr. at 534r-36. Reviewing the trial court’s dismissal of the plaintiffs suit, the court held that because the plaintiff could not assert his innocence, “all of the various causes of action alleged in tort against defendants ... founder on the complete lack of proximate causation between the torts alleged ... and the injuries plaintiff allegedly suffered....” Id. 170 Cal.Rptr. at 538.
Here, however, Peeler does not need to establish her innocence in order to prove with a high degree of certainty that her attorneys’ conduct resulted in her indictment and conviction. If, as Peeler claims, the prosecutor made an offer of transactional immunity which Jordan failed to convey to her, that failure proximately caused her indictment and conviction. Whether Peeler actually committed the crimes with which she was charged is — under these circumstances — irrelevant. Under her version of the facts, she certainly would not have been either indicted or convicted had she known about and accepted the government’s offer of transactional immunity. The affidavit offered as summary judgment proof from the prosecutor makes clear that the immunity he discussed with Jordan would have saved Peeler from prosecution for any acts arising out of the transactions under investigation. Supra, at 500 n. 1 (Hightower, J., concurring).
Thus, if a plaintiff introduces, as part of his or her case-in-chief, proof of an offer of immunity that is supported by evidence originating with the governmental entity that allegedly made that offer, and further proof both that the offer was not communicated to the defendant and that the defendant would *502have accepted it, I would allow the plaintiff’s action to proceed to the jury. This rule, unlike the Court’s, would encourage attorneys to communicate such immunity offers in order to facilitate the conviction of those parties to a crime whom prosecutors believe are most culpable. Summary judgment still would be proper for a convicted criminal’s former attorney, however, unless the plaintiff can provide testimony from a current or former prosecutor, an official government document, or some other evidence that meets this stringent burden, together with further proof that the offer would have made a difference but for the attorney’s conduct.
Because Peeler’s summary judgment proof meets this standard, I believe she should receive a trial on the merits. Accordingly, I respectfully dissent from the Court’s judgment that she take nothing.1

. Despite the Court’s holding regarding Peeler’s causes of action for negligence and violations of the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act ("DTPA”), TexBus. & Com.Code §§ 17.41-.63, she still might have had a remedy against Jordan and Hughes & Luce had she pursued on appeal her claims sounding in contract. Since causation is not an element of a contract or restitution claim, I would not construe anything in the Court’s opinion to prevent a convicted former client from recovering against an attorney on those grounds. See Bailey v. Tucker, 533 Pa. 237, 621 A.2d 108, 115 (1993). As the court of appeals noted, making post-conviction relief a prerequisite to recovery in negligence or under the DTPA does not preclude a convict from recovering against a former attorney for breach of contract or in restitution. 868 S.W.2d 823, 833. Indeed, the court in Bailey concluded that a suit sounding in contract rather than tort would both permit redress for the malfeasance of which Peeler accuses Jordan and Hughes & Luce and prevent criminals from profiting from their wrongdoing. 621 A.2d at 115.