LeBlanc v. Appurao

138 So. 3d 1, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 0491, 2014 WL 561617, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 365
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 13, 2014
DocketNo. 2013 CA 0491
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 138 So. 3d 1 (LeBlanc v. Appurao) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LeBlanc v. Appurao, 138 So. 3d 1, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 0491, 2014 WL 561617, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 365 (La. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

PARRO, J.

lijRon A. Austin (Austin) and Austin & Associates, L.L.C. (the Austin firm) appeal a judgment dividing attorney fees on a quantum meruit basis between the Austin firm and Jennifer M. Medley (Medley). For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In November 2009, attorneys Robert M. Johnston, with the office of Robert M. Johnston, L.L.C., and Michael Hingle, with the office of Michael Hingle & Associates, L.L.C. (collectively referred to as the Hin-gle group), filed a medical malpractice case on behalf of their client, Jane LeBlanc. Before filing suit, LeBlanc had entered into a contingency fee arrangement with the Hingle group. In early 2011, LeBlanc became dissatisfied with the performance of her attorneys and discussed her case with Medley. Medley was associated with the Austin firm at that time, and she arranged a meeting between LeBlanc and Austin to discuss the case. Following that meeting, LeBlanc discharged the Hingle group and on June 15, 2011, signed a contingency fee contract naming Medley and the Austin firm as her attorneys.

On August 15, 2011, LeBlanc’s malpractice case went to a mediation that was conducted by Austin and Medley. As a result of the mediation, the defendants agreed to a $300,000 settlement. Medley reached an agreement with the Hingle group that they were to receive two-thirds of the 40% contingency fee, specifically, $80,000, plus expenses, and she would receive one third of the 40% contingency fee, specifically, $40,000. However, Austin had not authorized this agreement, and it was inconsistent with a conversation between Austin, Medley, and LeBlanc at the mediation, purportedly advising that the Austin firm would lower its contingency fee to 33-1/3% and would try to get the Hingle group to do the same, resulting in a greater recovery for LeBlanc. At this point, [3]*3Austin and the Austin firm terminated their relationship with Medley, and Le-Blanc also fired her. On September 19, 2011, LeBlanc signed another contingency fee agreement that named only Austin and the Austin firm as counsel, omitting Medley’s name from the agreement. Because the attorneys disagreed on the distribution of the attorney fees called for in the three contingency fee contracts, the amount of $120,000 |sin attorney fees, plus $23,852.42 in expenses incurred by the Hingle group,1 was deposited in the registry of the court.

Austin and the Austin firm filed an intervention in the lawsuit to recover their attorney fees, naming the Hingle group and Medley as defendants-in-intervention and asking that any damages recovered by LeBlanc be apportioned so that the inter-venors’ claim for legal services, costs, and expenses would take precedence over the plaintiffs recovery. The Hingle group also filed a petition of intervention and a supplementary and amending petition of intervention, naming Medley and Austin as defendants-in-intervention and seeking enforcement of the contract that they had negotiated with Medley. Medley, Austin, the Austin firm, and the Hingle group eventually agreed that the Hingle group was entitled to $80,000, plus $23,852.42 in expenses, and these amounts were paid to the Hingle group. The only remaining dispute was between Medley and the Austin firm as to the distribution of the $40,000 still on deposit in the registry of the court.

Medley filed a motion for summary judgment, claiming that, as of early May 2011, she was an independent contractor, of counsel to the Austin firm, and was no longer an employee of the Austin firm when LeBlanc agreed to hire her to handle the malpractice case. She contended that Austin and the law firm had no legitimate claim to an attorney fee in the case or, in the alternative, that any such fee be limited by quantum meruit. Austin and the Austin firm opposed the motion, claiming Medley was at all relevant times an employee of the firm, was paid a salary, and was entitled to only 10% to 35% of the collected fee if she was the originating attorney and did substantial work on a case. They based these percentages on two standard contracts used by the law firm when associating an attorney; no signed contracts between LeBlanc and Austin or the Austin firm were submitted into evidence. Finding there were genuine issues of material fact, the court denied the motion.

A concursus trial was held on August 15, 2012, after which the court took the case under advisement. In reasons for judgment, the court reviewed the evidence and concluded that Medley was an employee of the Austin firm from April 1, 2011, when |4she was hired, until August 16, 2011, when she was terminated. However, there was no signed, written contract setting forth the terms of her employment, nor was there a meeting of the minds as to the terms of her compensation. Accordingly, the court concluded that she should be paid on a quantum meruit basis. Applying the factors set forth in the Louisiana State Bar Association Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 1.5, the court concluded that Medley was entitled to $23,500, and Austin and the Austin firm were entitled to $16,500. A judgment to this effect was signed November 5, 2012.

Austin and the Austin firm filed a sus-pensive appeal from this judgment. In [4]*4their assignment of error, they state the trial court erred in awarding attorney fees to Medley, Austin’s employee, based on Austin’s intervention in these proceedings to enforce his and his firm’s attorney fee lien on the proceeds of the settlement.

APPLICABLE LAW

A court of appeal may not overturn a judgment of a trial court unless there is an error of law or a factual finding that is manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong. Morris v. Safewav Ins. Co. of Louisiana, 03-1361 (La.App. 1st Cir.9/17/04), 897 So.2d 616, 617, writ denied, 04-2572 (La.12/17/04), 888 So.2d 872. The Louisiana Supreme Court has posited a two-part test for the appellate review of facts in order to affirm the factual findings of the trier of fact: (1) the appellate court must find from the record that there is a reasonable factual basis for the finding of the trier of fact; and (2) the appellate court must further determine that the record establishes that the finding is not clearly wrong (manifestly erroneous). See Mart v. Hill. 505 So.2d 1120, 1127 (La.1987). Thus, if there is no reasonable factual basis in the record for the trier of fact’s finding, no additional inquiry is necessary to conclude there was manifest error. However, if a reasonable factual basis exists, an appellate court may set aside a factual finding only if, after reviewing the record in its entirety, it determines the factual finding was clearly wrong. See Stobart v. State, through Dep’t of Transp. and Dev., 617 So.2d 880, 882 (La.1993); Moss v. State, 07-1686 (La.App. 1st Cir.8/8/08), 993 So.2d 687, 693, writ denied, 08-2166 (La.11/14/08), 996 So.2d 1092. If the trial court’s factual findings are reasonable in light of the record reviewed in its entirety, the court of appeal may not reverse those findings, even though convinced that, had it been sitting as the trier of Ififact, it would have weighed the evidence differently. Smegal v. Gettys, 10-0648 (La.App. 1st Cir.10/29/10), 48 So.3d 431, 435.

With regard to questions of law, appellate review is simply a review of whether the trial court was legally correct or legally incorrect. Hidalgo v. Wilson Certified Exp., Inc., 94-1322 (La.App. 1st Cir.5/14/96), 676 So.2d 114, 116.

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Bluebook (online)
138 So. 3d 1, 2013 La.App. 1 Cir. 0491, 2014 WL 561617, 2014 La. App. LEXIS 365, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leblanc-v-appurao-lactapp-2014.