Court Opinion

ID: 9935619
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-09 18:56:24.770517+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:28:32.318581
License: Public Domain

In Blumberg v. Touche-Ross Co., 514 So.2d 922, 925 (Ala. 1987), I noted that there was "near universal agreement with the proposition that such liability [liability of accountants to their clients] may arise in either tort or contract for the negligent performance of an accounting service." In Blumberg, this Court held that an accountant is liable in contract for breaching an express (but probably not an implied) promise to use due care. 514 So.2d at 927.
In this case, we are faced with the question of the creation of an accountant's duty to a client, the breach of which can be the basis for a negligence action. To me, it seems the duty arose from the relationship of the defendants and the plaintiffs. Because the jury found for the plaintiffs, our standard of review requires that we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs. *Page 1069 
When we do this, we must assume that the plaintiff Dr. Standeffer asked the defendants how he could receive tax-free disability insurance payments, that the defendants incorrectly informed Dr. Standeffer what he must do, that Dr. Standeffer did what the defendants told him to do, and that Dr. Standeffer was damaged by having to pay income taxes on his disability insurance payments. It seems to me that the Statute of Frauds defense is not a viable defense in the present case. Dr. Standeffer testified that he followed the defendants' advice, which was wrong, not that the defendants failed to do something that could not be done in a year. I would not hold that a duty created by contract would not be subject to a Statute of Frauds defense in a negligence action based upon a breach of that duty. (Trum v. Melvin Pierce Marine Coating, Inc.,562 So.2d 235 (Ala. 1990), did not address the issue whether a fraudulent misrepresentation regarding a contract that, under its terms, was not capable of being performed in one year was subject to the Statute of Frauds.) I do not believe that Pickard v.Turner, 592 So.2d 1016 (Ala. 1992), which involved a legal malpractice action, addressed the issue whether the Statute of Frauds is a defense to a negligence action based upon a breach of duty created by contract. I have found no Alabama case that addresses this issue, and I would wait to address this issue until it is necessary.