O'Boyle v. Braverman

337 F. App'x 162
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Third Circuit
DecidedJuly 15, 2009
DocketNo. 08-3865
StatusPublished

This text of 337 F. App'x 162 (O'Boyle v. Braverman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Boyle v. Braverman, 337 F. App'x 162 (3d Cir. 2009).

Opinion

VAN ANTWERPEN, Circuit Judge.

Appellants Catherine and Martin O’Boyle were general partners in New Midland Plaza Associates (“New Midland”), a Tennessee partnership; they were also partners in two Florida partnerships, both of which had ownership interests in New Midland.1 Appellants re[164]*164tained Appellee Braverman and his former law firm to represent New Midland in its dispute with a mortgage lender. Braver-man filed suit on behalf of Appellants in Tennessee court in April 1999. In the current case, which was filed in New Jersey court on December 14, 2007, and was subsequently removed to federal court, Appellants claim that Braverman failed to use due care in connection with the Tennessee litigation and that his malpractice resulted in the dismissal of the Tennessee case and in the Tennessee court levying sanctions on Appellants.

Braverman moved to dismiss the action and the District Court granted Braver-man’s motion under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). In dismissing the case, the District Court applied New Jersey choice of law principles and concluded that Tennessee law applied. It ruled that, because Appellees filed suit on December 14, 2007, and their injuries were suffered no later than November 2, 2006, the action was barred under Tennessee’s one year statute of limitations for legal malpractice claims. For the following reasons, we agree and will affirm the decision of the. District Court.

I.

The District Court had jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1332. This Court has appellate jurisdiction pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. When considering a district court’s grant of a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6) we exercise plenary review and accept all factual allegations in the complaint as true, viewing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff. Umland v. PLANCO Financial Services, Inc., 542 F.3d 59, 64 (3d Cir.2008). In doing so, we “determine whether, under any reasonable reading of the complaint, the plaintiff may be entitled to relief.” Id. (quotation marks omitted).

II.

The District Court, in deciding this case, considered Tennessee court documents for the purpose of determining the dates on which the Tennessee litigation was dismissed and on which the Tennessee court levied sanctions on Appellants. Appellants argue that, as it decided this case in the context of a Rule 12(b)(6) motion, the District Court’s dismissal on statute of limitations grounds was improperly based on public records that were outside the face of the complaint. Similar arguments have been rejected by this and other Courts of Appeals.2 This Court has held that,

[t]o resolve a 12(b)(6) motion, a court may properly look at public records, including judicial proceedings, in addition to the allegations in the complaint.
Specifically, on a motion to dismiss, we may take judicial notice of another court’s opinion — not for the truth of the facts recited therein, but for the exis[165]*165tence of the opinion, which is not subject to reasonable dispute over its authenticity.

Southern Cross Overseas Agencies, Inc. v. Wah Kwong Shipping Group Ltd., 181 F.3d 410, 426-27 (3d Cir.1999) (citations omitted). Accordingly, it was not improper for the District Court to take judicial notice of Tennessee court documents in deciding the Rule 12(b)(6) motion at issue.

III.

New Jersey’s choice of law rules apply to this case.3 Appellants argue that the District Court’s application of New Jersey’s choice of law rules was flawed in that the court erred in finding an actual conflict between the New Jersey and Tennessee statutes of limitations and that, even if a conflict exists, the court erred in concluding that Tennessee law applied. We disagree, and for the following reasons, will affirm the District Court’s order dismissing this case.

Appellants maintain that their action is timely under both the New Jersey and Tennessee statutes of limitations. We disagree. Tennessee’s statute of limitations for legal malpractice claims is one year from the time the cause of action accrues. Tenn.Code Ann. § 28—3—104(a)(2). New Jersey, on the other hand, allows six years from the accrual of the cause of action. McGrogan v. Till, 167 N.J. 414, 771 A.2d 1187, 1194 (2001) (holding that legal malpractice actions are governed by the six year statute of limitations contained in N.J.S.A. 2A:14-1). Under the law of both states, a legal malpractice action accrues when the plaintiff suffers actual damage and discovers, or through the use of reasonable diligence should have discovered, that the defendant-attorney’s conduct caused this damage. See John Kohl & Co. v. Dearborn & Ewing, 977 S.W.2d 528, 532 (Tenn.1998); Vastano v. Algeier, 178 N.J. 230, 837 A.2d 1081, 1084 (2003). There is no dispute that the current action would be timely under New Jersey law.

Tennessee law holds that “[i]t is a court’s judgment that decrees the loss of a right or remedy or imposes a legal liability. Thus, when a judgment is entered, a ‘legally cognizable injury’ occurs.” Cherry v. Williams, 36 S.W.3d 78, 85 (Tenn.Ct.App.2000); see also Carvell v. Bottoms, 900 S.W.2d 23, 29 (Tenn.1995) (rejecting the argument that the statute of limitations for legal malpractice should be tolled pending the appeal of the underlying suit). We thus reject Appellants’ argument that their cause of action accrued on December 27, 2006, the date on which they settled the appeal in the Tennessee action. As noted by the District Court,

[t]he only injuries alleged in the Complaint are the dismissal of the Tennessee Litigation and the imposition of sanctions against Plaintiffs. According to public records related to the Tennessee Litigation, these sanctions were first imposed on September 27, 2005. The state court filed its final decree dismissing the Tennessee Litigation on December 14, 2005. Then, on November 2, 2006, additional sanctions were imposed.... Thus, this action accrued no later than November 2006.

Appellants filed their Complaint on December 14, 2007. The District Court correctly held that, even giving Appellants the benefit of the latest possible date of accru[166]*166al — November 2, 2006 — the current action was not timely under Tennessee’s one year statute of limitations.

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Bluebook (online)
337 F. App'x 162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oboyle-v-braverman-ca3-2009.