Kormanik v. Seghers

362 S.W.3d 679, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 248, 2011 WL 2322369
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJanuary 12, 2012
Docket14-09-00815-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 362 S.W.3d 679 (Kormanik v. Seghers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kormanik v. Seghers, 362 S.W.3d 679, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 248, 2011 WL 2322369 (Tex. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinions

OPINION

KEM THOMPSON FROST, Justice.

Two lawyers sued an African art aficionado claiming he breached a contract to pay them a flat fee for implementing a marketing plan for an extensive Tikar art collection. The jury found that an attorney-client relationship existed between one of the lawyers and the art aficionado at the time of the contract and that this lawyer did not comply with his fiduciary duty. The jury did not find any damages to the other lawyer resulting from this breach. On appeal, the lawyers challenge the sufficiency of the evidence as to these jury findings. We affirm.

I. Factual and PROCEDURAL Background

Appellee/defendant Victor Seghers, a Belgian cardiologist, is an aficionado of the art and culture of the Tikar people of Cameroon. Seghers, who had accumulated a substantial collection of Tikar art, made arrangements with a contact in Cameroon, Emmanuel Mbiam, for shipment of a portion of the collection to Texas, where Seghers lives. Seghers encountered difficulties and significant expense in the process. When he was unable to gain possession of the art, Seghers sought assistance from appellant/plaintiff Ronald J. Kormanik, a Texas lawyer. Seghers met and consulted with Kormanik in Texas and explained the problems he had encountered.

In July 2005, Seghers and Kormanik entered into an agreement entitled “Contract of Employment and Power of Attorney.” Seghers agreed to pay Kormanik a retainer of $25,000. Kormanik agreed to discounted hourly billing rates, and Segh-ers agreed to pay Kormanik, as additional fees, “2½% of the proceeds of the sale, rent, lease or other disposition of the Tikar artwork now owned, or to be acquired by or through [Seghers].” Seghers paid Kor-manik the $25,000 retainer, which the parties later orally agreed would simply be a flat fee.

The Mbiam Lawsuit

In September 2005, Kormanik filed suit against Mbiam, a foreign national, and other defendants in a state district court in Bell County, Texas. The defendants in the Mbiam suit removed the case to federal court and moved to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction. Before the federal court ruled on the jurisdictional issue, the parties reached a settlement in which Mbiam agreed to return the art in exchange for a full and final release of any and all claims by Seghers related to the Tikar art. The settlement agreement, which was fully executed on April 17, 2006, was followed by a final judgment dismissing Seghers’s claims with prejudice.

Cameroon Trip

Before the settlement in the Mbiam lawsuit was finalized, Seghers asked Korman-ik and others to accompany him to Cameroon to get physical control of the Tikar art collection. Kormanik proposed a flat fee of $25,000, plus expenses estimated to be an additional $25,000. Seghers ultimately agreed to pay Kormanik $50,000, out of which came Kormanik’s fee and expenses. They made the trip and were successful in obtaining physical possession of the art.

Conflicting Testimony as to what Happened after the Cameroon Trip

Witnesses presented conflicting testimony at trial as to what transpired after the [682]*682Cameroon trip. Kormanik testified as follows:

• Kormanik believed that his attorney-client relationship with Seghers ended “somewhere in the latter part of June of 2006.” Kormanik did not send Seghers a letter terminating Kormanik’s representation of Segh-ers.
• After their trip to Cameroon, Kor-manik was willing to participate in helping make the Tikar art project successful.
• Kormanik had some discussions with Seghers about the need to market the Tikar art collection. Kormanik then had discussions with Seghers about appellant Michael D. Sydow.
• At least one month before July 8, 2006, Seghers and his wife met with Kormanik in Houston to discuss , Seghers’s desire to take further action against Mbiam. Kormanik explained the releases that Seghers had signed when the Mbiam lawsuit settled. Kormanik told Seghers that this “was likely a dead end,” and Seghers did not pursue further action against Mbiam.
• Kormanik asked Seghers to send him $20,000. Seghers was not Kor-manik’s client when Kormanik received the June 30, 2006 check for $20,000. This $20,000 was not sent specifically for legal work, and Kor-manik and Seghers “had not come to any agreement about what, if anything, [they] were going to do.” Kormanik asked Seghers to send Kormanik $20,000 because Seghers knew Kormanik did not work for free and Kormanik was going to set aside his time to visit with him about the marketing plan.
• Seghers, Sydow, and Kormanik met in Houston on July 8, 2006, in Kor-manik’s office. This was the first time Seghers had met Sydow, and Kormanik introduced Sydow by name to Seghers. Seghers educated Sydow about the Tikar art. Before July 8, 2006, Kormanik received a check from Seghers for $20,000. On this date, Kormanik already had $20,000 of Seghers’s money.
• The next day, at Seghers’s suggestion, the trio went to Temple, Texas to look at the Tikar art there. After looking at the art, the trio went to Seghers’s house in Temple. Seghers continued to educate Kormanik and Sydow about the Tikar art, and Seghers gave them about six books so that they could study the books in preparation to move the project forward.
• Sydow had an idea that it would be better if they could interest celebrities in the Tikar culture and try to convince them of Seghers’s idea that this art “is going to change essentially the world.” Sydow thought that the value of the Tikar art could be increased if celebrities brought the importance of this art to the public.
• On July 10, 2006, Seghers, Korman-ik, and Sydow met again for hours in Kormanik’s Houston office. They discussed a marketing plan with four phases.
• In Phase I the goal was to generate interest in Tikar culture among selected celebrities. They discussed the process by which they would be identifying, contacting, and educating “lead celebrities,” including the renowned artist Michael Jackson, and the Jackson family. Sydow had represented Michael Jackson in various business dealings.
• In Phase II, there would be publicity regarding the Tikar art, and they [683]*683would seek celebrity endorsements and television and movie specials about the Tikar art.
• Phase III would be the negotiation of the acquisition of the art. Segh-ers was convinced that the value of the whole project to him after everyone else was paid would be at least $80 million.
• Phase IV would involve the exhibition of the Tikar art in museums and traveling exhibits.
• By the end of the meeting on July 10, 2006, Seghers, Kormanik, and Sydow came to a meeting of the minds that (1) Kormanik and Sydow would go forward with the marketing plan for the Tikar art; (2) Seghers would pay Kormanik and Sydow $350,000; and (3) Kormanik and Sy-dow would pay their own expenses, except that Seghers would pay their expenses relating to African academicians. The three men outlined the marketing plan on a white board.1

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
362 S.W.3d 679, 2012 Tex. App. LEXIS 248, 2011 WL 2322369, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kormanik-v-seghers-texapp-2012.