Court Opinion

ID: 9883819
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-10-06 02:21:02.204168+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:48:31.765463
License: Public Domain

RANDALL, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I would affirm the trial court which found the potential malpractice action terminated upon plaintiff’s death.
Robert Johnson had six years from May 18, 1975, to sue for his personal injuries suffered in the accident that day. That deadline came and went with no lawsuit being filed, leaving him only a cause of action against his attorney, Gordon Taylor. However, prior to beginning suit against Taylor, Johnson died.
It seems to me the trial court analyzed the situation correctly. Since, to prove a cause of action and damages against Taylor, Johnson would have had to prove a cause of action and damages against the person who struck him with a car on May 18, 1975, the underlying malpractice action dies with plaintiff Johnson just as if Johnson had died before commencing suit against the original tortfeasor. To recover *130for legal malpractice on a claim that a statute of limitations was missed, you basically prove “a lawsuit within a lawsuit.” Johnson’s heirs cannot prove up a personal injury lawsuit against the original tort-feasor (the exception for wrongful death is not involved). Johnson had to prove up his original personal injury action (on both the issues of liability and damages) himself while alive. Now to recover for legal malpractice by claiming that his attorney negligently permitted the statute of limitations to run, in addition to proving an attorney/client relationship (not in issue here), Johnson would have to establish that the claim that was lost was a “recoverable claim,” in other words, had value.1
Since Johnson’s heirs cannot prove Johnson's personal injury case against the original automobile tortfeasor, the trial court found they had no legal malpractice claim to prove against Taylor, as they could not prove damages. The heirs cannot show Johnson’s damages as against the automobile tortfeasor because that lawsuit died when Johnson died. The trial court properly found this malpractice action against Taylor died with plaintiff Johnson, and I would affirm.

. Christy v. Saliterman, 288 Minn. 144, 179 N.W. 2d 288, 289 (1970).