McFarlin v. Watts

895 S.W.2d 687, 1994 Tenn. App. LEXIS 616
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedOctober 26, 1994
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 895 S.W.2d 687 (McFarlin v. Watts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McFarlin v. Watts, 895 S.W.2d 687, 1994 Tenn. App. LEXIS 616 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1994).

Opinion

OPINION

CANTRELL, Judge.

A judgment creditor sued the debtor’s lawyer for negligently misrepresenting that the judgment would be promptly paid from funds obtained in the settlement of another action. The Circuit Court of Sumner County entered a judgment for the plaintiff. For the reasons set out in this opinion we reverse the judgment below and dismiss the complaint.

I.

Sharon McFarlin obtained a $9,999.99 judgment in the General Sessions Court of Sumner County against Jim and Rose Win-free. On September 17, 1992, she arrived at the Winfrees’ door with a moving van and a deputy sheriff armed with an execution commanding him to levy on all the defendants’ personal property, including home furnishings.

Tom Watts, a Nashville attorney, had represented the Winfrees in legal matters for several years. One of the matters involving Mr. Winfree was an action in federal court where Mr. Watts had obtained a judgment on behalf of a corporation in which Mr. Win-free had an interest. While this case was on appeal, the parties agreed to a compromise and settlement. Mr. Winfree’s anticipated share of the settlement was enough to pay Ms. McFarlin’s judgment. On September 16, 1992, the day before the attempted levy on the Winfrees’ furniture, Mr. Watts received a letter from his adversary in the federal ease enclosing the settlement forms and stating: “The settlement monies are to be wire-transferred into my trust account around the first of next week.”

When the moving van arrived at Mr. Win-free’s door, he asked Ms. McFarlin to talk to Mr. Watts about withdrawing the execution on the promise that the judgment would be paid out of the settlement of the federal case. Ms. McFarlin referred Mr. Watts to her attorney. When Mr. Watts tried to contact Ms. McFarlin’s attorney, Mr. Longmire, and found he was out of the office, one of the attorneys in the office with Mr. Longmire took the call. This is his version of the conversation with Mr. Watts:

Q. And tell the Court what your memory of that telephone call was.
A. Well, Mr. Watts, there was a sense of real urgency with Mr. Watts because, as he related to me, his client had been a defendant in a detainer action, as I recall, or something, or a lawsuit, had lost, and the sheriff and a moving van were at his client’s home, ready to take furniture out of his client’s house. And, as I said, it was late on Thursday afternoon. And he was, Mr. Watts was trying to get some type of accommodation to prevent that from happening.
And he related to me that he had settled a lawsuit on behalf of his client, and that the proceeds in an amount to satisfy the judgment in excess of $10,000 would be immediately forthcoming.
[689]*689Q. Now, is that a quote, or is that your best memory?
A. That’s my best memory. I mean, this was a year and a half ago. That’s as close a quote as I could come to. There was no mention whatsoever of an African defendant, of an assignment by Winfree against another plaintiffs loss of proceeds of default judgments or whatever.
I was led to believe it was a very simple lawsuit that Mr. Watts had settled himself, and he was going to be getting the money immediately, he said by that following Monday, which would be four days, but no later than the following Wednesday, which was five days.
And I was under the distinct impression, from talking to them, it was an insurance type case, where he was just waiting on the check from the insurance company, there would be no question about it.
Q. And what did he want you to do?
A. He wanted me to call Ms. McFarlin and ask Ms. McFarlin or persuade Ms. McFarlin to release the execution based upon his assurance that this money, this $10,000, would be forthcoming within three days and was, was a certainty.
And, you know, again, I didn’t know any of the players in this lawsuit, and regret picking up the phone at this point in time, quite honestly.
Q. What did you do after that phone call, Mr. Jones?
A. Well, I’ll tell you, I got ahold of Mrs. McFarlin. He gave me the number to get Mrs. McFarlin. I didn’t even know it.
I called Mrs. McFarlin, and I said, Look, I don’t know you, but I practice with Jay Longmire. He’s not here. I just had this call from Mr. Watts, who is the Winfrees’ attorney, as I understand. Mr. Watts has assured me that he has settled a lawsuit, the money is a certainty and will be there on Monday, not later than Wednesday, and that, in my opinion, the money’s in the bank, a bird in the hand is better than one in the bush, and money is better than furniture.
And I said, If I were you, based on those assurances, I would release the execution.
Q. And did she authorize you to do that?
A. And she authorized me to do it. At another point in his testimony he said:
Q. Did Mr. Watts give you any qualifications to that settlement?
A. None whatsoever, none, nothing. I mean, again, my direct impression from my conversation with Mr. Watts was, he said he had settled a jury trial lawsuit, that it was an insurance-type settlement, that the money, it was in State Court and the money would be there just within two or three days.

And again:

A. Let me, I think one time, in answer to Mr. Longmire, in one subsequent conversation I had with Mr. Watts, when he attempted to explain to me about this money coming from overseas, this was well after the money was supposed to have been there. That’s when I got a little upset, I believe, because that never had been explained to me on that Thursday afternoon when he asked me to do this favor for him. And I think — that bothered me a great deal, those facts had not been made known to me at that time.

Based on the promise that the judgment would be paid by the middle of the next week, Ms. McFarlin released the execution.

However, the appellant in the federal court did not live up to his agreement. Consequently, Mr. Watts could not satisfy Ms. McFarlin’s judgment. Her counsel then obtained a court order for Mr. Winfree to appear at a deposition on December 4, 1992 to answer questions about his assets. At 9:30 that morning he filed a claim of exemption listing items of furniture and other personal property amounting in value to $7350. Mr. Watts testified that he did not advise Mr. Winfree to make the exemption claims and that it was done without his knowledge.

In the meantime, on October 23, 1992, Ms. McFarlin sued Mr. Watts for negligent misrepresentation. Mr. Watts filed a third party claim for fraudulent misrepresentation against the law firm that represented the [690]*690appellant in the original federal ease. After a bench trial, the circuit judge found Mr. Watts liable on the negligent misrepresentation theory and entered a judgment against him in the amount of $7,550.00. The court also dismissed Mr. Watts’ third-party complaint.

II.

The cause of action for negligent misrepresentation in this state is based on § 552 of the Restatement (2d) of Torts. John Martin Company v.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
895 S.W.2d 687, 1994 Tenn. App. LEXIS 616, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcfarlin-v-watts-tennctapp-1994.