Marcia Jones v. Harry Psimos

882 F.2d 1277
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedSeptember 26, 1989
Docket88-2913
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 882 F.2d 1277 (Marcia Jones v. Harry Psimos) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Marcia Jones v. Harry Psimos, 882 F.2d 1277 (7th Cir. 1989).

Opinion

HARLINGTON WOOD, Jr., Circuit Judge.

Defendant-appellee Harry Psimos represented Plaintiff-appellant Marcia Jones in divorce proceedings in the Indiana state courts. Dissatisfied with Mr. Psimos’ professional performance, Ms. Jones invoked the district court’s diversity jurisdiction and sued Mr. Psimos for legal malpractice. 1 Upon Mr. Psimos’ motion the court below granted summary judgment against Ms. Jones. She now appeals.

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

A. Indiana Divorce Proceedings

Edward and Marcia Jones married on March 17, 1973. When Mr. Jones filed for divorce in February 1982, Ms. Jones retained Mr. Psimos to represent her. The Joneses’ marriage was dissolved on November 23, 1982, but by agreement of both parties division of the couple’s property was reserved for a later date. The parties thereafter engaged in discovery concerning the couple’s marital assets and liabilities. The judge presiding over the Joneses’ property distribution heard four days of testimony on the issue in the summer of 1983.

It appears that during the marriage Mr. Jones was self-employed, owning a service station, while Ms. Jones worked as a teacher in the Indiana public school system. The couple purchased a home in 1974 that Ms. Jones continued to occupy after the divorce. Mr. Jones gave Ms. Jones $600 a week for household and personal expenses. Ms. Jones also contributed her salary to the family income, but it was always substantially less than the approximately $31,-000 Mr. Jones provided from the service station’s gross receipts each year. The Joneses lived well. Ms. Jones acquired large quantities of clothing, expensive diamond jewelry and furs; Mr. Jones wore Cartier watches and Gucci loafers. One Christmas, they purchased $500 worth of clothing for Mr. Jones’ children from a previous marriage. The couple’s federal income tax returns for the years of their marriage do not indicate a level of income that would permit them to net over $30,000 from the service station business each year for personal and household expenses. The business did not in fact generate sufficient money to support such withdrawals. At the time of the property distribution hearing Mr. Jones owed $40,000 to the state of Indiana in unpaid sales tax and $12,000 to the federal government in overdue income tax. Mr. Jones also apparently gambled away much of the earnings of the service station in the commodities market. Ac *1279 cording to Ms. Jones, Mr. Jones siphoned off money from both the service station business and numerous commodities and stock accounts in which he had an interest. It was her contention during the property distribution hearings that Mr. Jones had secreted substantial assets in this way, and that she was entitled to share in the booty. In the alternative, Ms. Jones argued that if there was no such money, then Mr. Jones had wasted marital assets since the time of the divorce, and therefore she was entitled to a greater share of what remained. Mr. Jones, on the other hand, asserted that he had no such secret funds, and furthermore, that Ms. Jones was guilty of selling off or concealing certain marital assets herself, thus depriving him of his fair share.

The Indiana state court judge, after considering the parties’ testimony and the evidence offered to bolster their contentions of concealment, concluded that the “allegations of secreting assets are probably true as to both parties” and that “the assets secreted by each party were of equal value and is not a matter that the court will consider in its final decision.” In re Marriage of Jones, No. C-269-82 (Jasper Circuit Court, Indiana, Jan. 25, 1984) (order distributing property). The judge went on to award Ms. Jones the family residence, a 1981 Mazda automobile, her personal jewelry, and one half of the household furniture and furnishings. She was also ordered to assume debts owed to her credit union and to several retail clothing and jewelry stores, as well as any other debts incurred by her but not specifically ordered paid by Mr. Jones.

Mr. Jones was awarded the service station business and all its accounts, all personal property related to the business including tools, equipment and inventory, a 1973 Lincoln automobile, one half of the household furniture and furnishings, and certain financial assets in the form of stocks and investment accounts. He was ordered to assume debts owed by the service station and by the couple to various creditors, in addition to other debts incurred by him that Ms. Jones was not specifically ordered to pay. In the end, the Joneses each received roughly half of the net marital assets.

The judge’s finding that the couple had secreted assets from one another in an equal amount forms the eye around which the current storm of litigation swirls. Ms. Jones was completely dissatisfied with the property division made by the judge, contending that there was no evidence from which the judge could have concluded that she had secreted marital assets, while on the other hand there was substantial evidence that Mr. Jones had concealed the existence of significant marital assets. Mr. Jones has never conceded this point however.

Mr. Psimos pursued post-judgment remedies for Ms. Jones in the form of a Motion to Amend Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law and a Motion to Correct Errors. After these motions were denied by the trial judge, Mr. Psimos wrote to Ms. Jones and discussed the possibility of appealing the property distribution decision. In that letter Mr. Psimos rendered this professional assessment:

... I feel that I have done substantial work and feel that there is error in the record and the possibility of reversal is good. As you know, I cannot promise you what the Appelate (sic) Court would do if we filed the Appeal.

Mr. Psimos’ letter described in some detail the steps necessary to initiate and perfect an appeal. He stated that under Indiana law a praecipe would have to be filed within 30 days of April 16, 1984 (the date the trial judge denied Ms. Jones’ post-judgment motions), and that the transcript of the property distribution hearing would have to be filed within 90 days of the April 16 date. Mr. Psimos also informed Ms. Jones that the cost for obtaining a transcript would probably run between $750 and $1500, but was a necessary expense if she wished to appeal. 2

*1280 Ms. Jones indicated that she wished to appeal the property distribution order and therefore provided Mr. Psimos with an advance toward the cost of copying the transcript. 3 Although Mr. Psimos filed a prae-cipe in the Indiana Court of Appeals within the 30-day limit, he thereafter failed to file certain required documents and Ms. Jones' appeal was summarily dismissed by the appellate court. Mr. Psimos tried unsuccessfully to have the appeal reinstated. He eventually returned some of the money advanced to him by Ms. Jones, and paid the balance due on the transcript out of his own funds.

B. District Court Legal Malpractice Proceedings

Ms. Jones filed suit against Mr. Psimos for attorney malpractice in federal district court on November 9, 1984. Ms. Jones’ complaint alleged that Mr.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
882 F.2d 1277, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/marcia-jones-v-harry-psimos-ca7-1989.