Court Opinion

ID: 9707557
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:15:41.287085+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:41:48.111393
License: Public Domain

CANE, J.
(concurring). Although I concur with the majority’s result, I am troubled by the opinion’s assumption that the causal and damage questions are jury determinations. In order for a jury to determine whether the attorney’s conduct “caused” any injury, it must look at the merits of the original claim. To resolve the issue of liability and damages in a legal malpractice case, the jury must determine what the outcome should have been if the attorney had properly presented the issues in the *79first instance. Lewandowski v. Continental Casualty Co., 88 Wis. 2d 271, 277, 276 N.W.2d 284, 287 (1979). Generally, this is not a problem because the outcome of the initial claim is usually a factual question that can be resolved by a jury.
Here, however, the original claim arises from a divorce action where the awards are judicial determinations, not factual determinations permitted to be made by a jury. See ch. 767, Stats. Spousal support, child support, and property division are matters for the trial court’s discretion. Bussewitz v. Bussewitz, 75 Wis. 2d 78, 83-90, 248 N.W.2d 417, 421-24 (1977). Section 767.255, Stats., sets forth a number of factors for the trial court to consider in making its decision on property division. It is not simply a checklist, but rather factors for the trial court to weigh and balance in making an equitable property division.
Additionally, the court’s award of maintenance, property division, attorney fees, and children’s medical expenses are interrelated and interdependent. Maintenance orders are also subject to further order of the court. Consequently, maintenance could be increased or reduced depending upon future circumstances.
To make it even more difficult, here the final award was made after the court accepted a stipulation of the parties. What the parties considered in their negotiations cannot be ignored. In fact, on appellate review, we are not to reverse the trial court unless it has made a mistake of fact, an error in computation, or a property division that is inappropriate to the circumstances of the parties. Bussewitz, 75 Wis. 2d at 89-90, 248 N.W.2d at 424. Yet we now require a jury in this type of attorney malpractice action to arrive at a judicial determination on questions of causation and damages that the jury would not be permitted to make in a divorce action in the first instance. *80Because trial court awards in divorce actions are treated as questions of judicial discretion with limited appellate review, I would conclude that the underlying question of what a reasonable judge would have awarded on the original claim should be for the trial court to determine.