Thompson v. Deloitte & Touche, L.L.P.

902 S.W.2d 13, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 996, 1995 WL 289351
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 11, 1995
Docket01-94-00444-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 902 S.W.2d 13 (Thompson v. Deloitte & Touche, L.L.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Thompson v. Deloitte & Touche, L.L.P., 902 S.W.2d 13, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 996, 1995 WL 289351 (Tex. Ct. App. 1995).

Opinion

OPINION

COHEN, Justice.

Appellants are the daughter and widow of James R. Thompson. When they learned, after his death, that he had secretly changed his will two months before his death, they sued appellees, Mr. Thompson’s accountants, for helping him do so and for not telling them about the changes. They contend that if they had known Mr. Thompson intended to change his will, they could have stopped him. There is no right to stop anyone from changing his will. Consequently, we agree with the judge and the jury that appellants should take nothing. We affirm.

James R. Thompson was the president and majority shareholder of Warren Electric Company. Deloitte & Touche, or one of its predecessor firms, first began performing accounting work for Mr. Thompson around 1965; and appellee Herbert E. Noack, Jr., a partner in Deloitte, first began working on Mr. Thompson’s matters in 1978.

By 1989, Mr. Thompson had accumulated a multimillion-dollar estate, and was concerned to preserve it for the benefit of his family and, particularly, for his two grandchildren. In 1989, Mr. Thompson met with Noack, attorney Don Fizer, and a stockbroker. *16 They discussed some changes to his 1986 will. Milton McCollough, Mr. Thompson’s attorney, drafted a new will.

The new will made three significant changes to Mr. Thompson’s 1986 will. First, under the 1986 will, Cheryl L. Thompson would have owned a majority interest in Warren Electric; but under the 1989 will, the stock was to be held in trust for her for her lifetime, and then pass to her children. Second, the 1989 will provided that “no member of my family or anyone related to me serve as the president or chief executive officer of Warren Electric Company.” Third, the 1989 will included an in terrorem provision.

Noack and appellee Parsons, another De-loitte partner, suggested language affecting taxation. After Fizer concurred, Mr. Thompson executed the new will, on August 10,1989. At Mr. Thompson’s request, appel-lees told no one, including appellants, about the changes.

Mr. Thompson died on October 10,1989, at age 83. Two days later, the will was read to appellants. They were disappointed.

The 1989 will was admitted to probate on October 24, 1989, and two years later, the statutory period 1 for contesting that will elapsed without any contest. In May 1992, however, appellants obtained a copy of Mr. Thompson’s 1986 will, and shortly thereafter, on July 29, 1992, they filed this suit. Before trial began, appellants dismissed all their claims against Williams, McCollough, and McCollough’s firm. The trial court directed a verdict for Parsons on all claims, and for Noack and Deloitte on specified claims. 2 The jury found against appellants on all theories submitted, 3 and the trial court entered a take-nothing judgment.

In point of error seven, appellants contend they established as a matter of law that appellees tortiously interfered with their inheritance rights.

When the probate court admitted the 1989 will to probate, it necessarily found that Mr. Thompson signed the will with testamentary capacity, and that it reflected his intent, was not the result of coercion or undue influence, and was valid. See Tex. PROB-Code Ann. art. § 88 (Vernon 1980) (a will may not be admitted to probate unless it is first found that the declarant had testamentary capacity). Two years later, when the statutory period for contesting that will elapsed without any contest, those findings became unappealable and final. Neill v. Yett, 746 S.W.2d 32, 36 (Tex.App.—Austin 1988, writ denied). As a matter of law, the final probate court judgment bars any claim that appellees tortiously interfered with any “inheritance expectancy” because, in light of the final and valid probate court judgment, appellants had no inheritance expectancy. Id.

Appellants recognize that this case is not a will contest; they do not challenge the 1989 will. Instead, appellants contend the accountants had a duty to tell them that Mr. Thompson intended to change or had changed his will. As damages, they seek what they would have received under the 1986 will.

Appellants’ straightforward complaint is that appellees should have told them Mr. Thompson was changing his will so that they could have stopped him. We hold that the appellees had no such duty; instead, they had a fiduciary duty to Mr. Thompson not to reveal his confidences, and they complied with that duty.

There is no cause of action in Texas for the lost opportunity to prevent someone from changing his will. The accountants’ acts, as a matter of law, did not injure appellants.

Point of error seven is overruled.

In points of error four and eight, appellants contend that they conclusively established their right to recover for breach of fiduciary duty and that the jury’s findings *17 were against the preponderance of the evidence. They complain about questions 2A through D, in which the jury answered “no” to the question, “Did the breach, if any, of the fiduciary relationship ... cause damage to [appellants]?”

Point eight asserts that appellants proved as a matter of law that they were damaged by appellees’ breach of fiduciary duty. Appellants did not show they were damaged. They concede, as they must, that Mr. Thompson knew what he was doing, did what he wanted to do, and had a right to do what he did with his property. It was, after all, his will and his property. Appellees were following Thompson’s directions; Thompson was not following theirs. Appellees did not injure appellants by helping Thompson do what he had a right to do or by keeping his confidences. Even if appellees had a duty to tell appellants what Mr. Thompson was doing or to decline to help him, no evidence shows that he would not have found others to help him achieve a goal he was entitled to achieve. Nor is there evidence that appellants could have changed his mind.

Point of error eight is overruled.

Point four asserts that appellants proved a breach of fiduciary duty as a matter of law. Even if they did, the jury could have still answered “no” upon finding that the breach caused no damage. Because point four does not attack that part of the compound question asked in questions 2A through D, appellants are not entitled to relief.

Point of error four is overruled.

In point of error five, appellants contend they proved as a matter of law their claim for fraud by concealment or failure to disclose, and that the jury’s answers to questions 5A through D were against the preponderance of the evidence.

In question 5, the trial court instructed the jury as follows:

Fraud by concealment or failure to disclose occurs when—
a. a party conceals or fails to disclose a material fact within the knowledge of that party,
b.

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Bluebook (online)
902 S.W.2d 13, 1995 Tex. App. LEXIS 996, 1995 WL 289351, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/thompson-v-deloitte-touche-llp-texapp-1995.