Landmark Ins. Co. v. Lonergan Law Firm, PLLC

383 F. Supp. 3d 668
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Texas
DecidedMarch 8, 2019
DocketACTION NO. 4:17-CV-0278-Y
StatusPublished

This text of 383 F. Supp. 3d 668 (Landmark Ins. Co. v. Lonergan Law Firm, PLLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Landmark Ins. Co. v. Lonergan Law Firm, PLLC, 383 F. Supp. 3d 668 (N.D. Tex. 2019).

Opinion

TERRY R. MEANS, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

I. INTRODUCTION

Before the Court is a motion for summary judgment by Landmark American Insurance Company ("Landmark") (doc. 38). The motion asks the Court to determine whether Landmark's insured invoked coverage by properly reporting a claim under a lawyer's professional-responsibility policy. More specifically, the motion asserts that the inclusion of a claim supplement in a renewal application failed to trigger Landmark's duty to defend and indemnify. After review, the Court GRANTS Landmark's motion based upon the following rationale.

II. FACTUAL & PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND1

A. About the Parties

Landmark is an insurance company providing professional-liability-insurance policies from its principal place of business in Atlanta, Georgia.2 (Compl. (doc. 1) 1.)

Defendant Gaylene Rogers Lonergan ("Lonergan"), Landmark's insured, is a licensed *672attorney providing legal services in Dallas, Texas. (Id. at 3.) The Lonergan Law Firm, PLLC (collectively "Defendants"), is a professional limited-liability company providing legal services from its principal place of business in Dallas, Texas. (Id. )

Christopher Dillon Snell; Brian Lockhard; Impromptu Communications, LLC; Todd Crain; and James L. Springer Jr. (collectively "Intervenor Defendants") are individual and corporate investors involved as lenders in the underlying state-court dispute. (Interv. Defs.' Mot. to Intervene (doc. 15) 5.)

B. The Underlying Dispute

In 2015, N & J Enterprises ("N & J") approached Intervenor Defendants regarding an investment opportunity. (Interv. Defs.' App'x to Opp'n to Pl.'s Mot. for Summ. J. (doc. 48) 43-44.) The opportunity involved the purchase of real property in Dalworthington Gardens, Texas ("the Dalworthington Property"). (Id. ) To invest, Intervenor Defendants would, and did, provide a $ 4.6 million loan to N & J, which then purchased the Dalworthington Property. The loan was secured by granting the Intervenor Defendants certain rights to various assets, including a deed of trust for the Dalworthington Property. (Id. at 47-48).

Defendants presided over the closing of the loan and provided assurances to the Intervenor Defendants that all security documentation concerning the loan's security was properly assembled and executed. (Id. ) Relying upon that assurance, the Intervenor Defendants authorized the funds' disbursement and Defendants, acting as the transaction's escrow agent, released Intervenor Defendants' $ 4,600,000 to N & J in May 2015. (Id. )

In June 2015, the loan matured but N & J failed to make payments to the Intervenor Defendants, who consequently attempted to enforce their rights under various security interests that N & J had provided. (Id. at 48.) One of those security interests was a Bank of America escrow account containing approximately $ 5,000,0000 that resulted from an agreement between N & J and Edward Eddyenton III ("Eddyenton"). (Id. ) As security for the loan, Eddyenton and N & J assigned N & J's rights to the account to the Intervenor Defendants. (Id. ) Lonergan had previously notarized the escrow assignment agreement's signature page and attested that she witnessed the escrow agent, Eddyenton, sign the agreement in her presence. (Id. )

The Intervenor Defendants also attempted to enforce their rights to proceeds from an unrelated real-estate transaction involving N & J that was included in the Dalworthington-Property deal. Previously, Lonergan had notarized an assignment of N & J's property rights to $ 14,000,000 in proceeds from a transaction involving property located on Coombs Creek Drive in Dallas, Texas ("the Coombs Creek Property"). (Id. at 49.)

The enforcement attempts proved to be a fool's errand for the Intervenor Defendants. In doing so, it became clear that the Bank of America escrow account never held more than $ 500, that Eddyenton was an alias of Jonathan Blount ("Blount"), N & J's owner and a career criminal with prior felony convictions for fraudulent investments in Texas and Oklahoma, and that Lonergan had never actually witnessed Blount sign the escrow assignment agreement in her presence. (Id. at 48-49.) Concerning the Coombs Creek Property, Intervenor Defendants learned that Lonergan suspected that N & J held no rights to the property at the time it assigned its rights to the Intervenor Defendants, but *673never conveyed that information to them. (Id. at 49.)

With all remaining security interests proven fraudulent, the Intervenor Defendants attempted to enforce their rights under the deed of trust on the Dalworthington Property by initiating foreclosure proceedings. (Id. ) However, they soon discovered that Lonergan had inaccurately described the Dalworthington Property in the deed and the Intervenor Defendants were only able to recover from its sale approximately $ 2,900,000 of the $ 4,600,000 loan. (Id. ) What is more, N & J's $ 14,600,000 appraisal of the Dalworthington Property proved to be more than ten times its actual value, which was overlooked by Lonergan. (Id. )

C. Landmark's Professional-Liability Coverage and Underlying State-Court Lawsuit Against Lonergan

Landmark provided professional-liability-insurance coverage to Lonergan between May 2014 and Spring 2017. (Pl.'s App'x to Mot. for Summ. J. (doc. 40-1) 72); (Interv. Defs'. App'x to Opp'n to Mot. for Summ. J. (doc. 48) 151.)) During that time, Lonergan renewed her policy yearly by completing an application that Landmark subsequently reviewed prior to renewal. (Id. at 68.) The application includes a question asking the applicant if a professional-liability claim or suit has ever been made against the applicant's firm or predecessor firm within the last five years. (Id. at 72.) If the applicant indicated that this was the case, he was required to complete a claims supplement listing and describing those claims. (Id. at 72, 73; 110, 111.) For both the 2015 and 2016 claim periods involved in this case, Lonergan filed a supplement in April 2015 and 2016 when applying to renew her policy.3 (Id. at 73, 111.)

On May 12, 2015, Landmark issued Lonergan a lawyer's professional-liability-insurance policy for the period between May 8, 2015, through May 8, 2016 ("2015 Policy"), and again for the period between May 8, 2016, and May 8, 2017 ("2016 Policy"). (Pl.'s App'x to Mot. for Summ. J. (doc. 40-1) 43, 80.) The policies operated on a made-and-reported basis with a retroactive date of May 8, 2014. (Id. )

Certain provisions of both policies, which are identical, are pertinent to resolving the issues before the Court. They are:

Covered Services : [Landmark] will pay on behalf of the Insured as shown in the [d]eclarations, all sums that the Insured becomes legally obligated to pay as [d]amages and associated [c]laim [e]xpenses arising out of a negligent act, error, omission, or [p]ersonal [i]njury, even if the [c]laim asserted is groundless, false or fraudulent, in the rendering of or failure to render [p]rofessional [s]ervices as a [l]awyer, provided that the:

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Bluebook (online)
383 F. Supp. 3d 668, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/landmark-ins-co-v-lonergan-law-firm-pllc-txnd-2019.