Vande Kop v. McGill

528 N.W.2d 609, 1995 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 55, 1995 WL 134884
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedMarch 29, 1995
Docket93-587
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 528 N.W.2d 609 (Vande Kop v. McGill) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vande Kop v. McGill, 528 N.W.2d 609, 1995 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 55, 1995 WL 134884 (iowa 1995).

Opinion

McGIVERIN, Chief Justice.

The question here is whether the district court properly sustained the defendant attorney’s motion for summary judgment in a legal malpractice action concerning the provisions of an antenuptial agreement. We agree with the court of appeals and affirm the district court ruling.

I. Background facts and 'proceedings. In 1975, Herbert Vande Kop was planning to be married for the second time. Vande Kop intended to marry Ella Marie Rastede. Because he had substantial assets, Vande Kop sought the professional services of attorney Harvey W. Hindt in order to have an ante-nuptial agreement drafted. In a brief conversation, Vande Kop informed Hindt that he was to be married and that he desired an antenuptial agreement to be prepared for their signatures prior to that marriage.

The antenuptial agreement drafted by Hindt contained provisions addressing the event of the death of either of the parties to the prospective marriage, and it provided the manner in which each party’s property would go to their own children respectively; this document did not address what would occur in the event the marriage ended in divorce. Upon completing the proposed antenuptial agreement, Hindt met with Vande Kop and Ella Marie and went over the provisions of the document, reading them paragraph by paragraph and pausing to see if either party had any questions. Neither Vande Kop nor *611 Ella Marie made any substantial inquiries regarding the provisions of the agreement, and both persons signed the document.

Soon after, the couple was married. Attorney Hindt died in 1976, and his estate was closed two years later.

In July 1990, after fifteen years of marriage, Ella Marie sued Vande Kop for dissolution of the marriage. In the dissolution decree, Ella Marie was awarded alimony, as well as a property settlement that had the combined value of approximately $100,000. Vande Kop was dissatisfied with the property division, believing that the antenuptial agreement he had requested from Hindt should have protected him from such an outcome.

Based on his belief that Hindt failed to provide the “divorce insurance” that he now says he intended to be included in the ante-nuptial agreement, plaintiff Vande Kop, in 1991, reopened the estate of the now deceased Hindt in order to initiate the present malpractice action against it. Vande Kop alleged that Hindt had not included in the antenuptial agreement the specific provisions or “divorce insurance” Vande Kop expected, and Hindt was thus negligent in drafting the agreement. Vande Kop also alleged that Hindt was negligent in failing to inform him that the antenuptial agreement would not serve to protect his property interests in the event the marriage ended in divorce. .

The district court sustained a motion for summary judgment, see Iowa R.Civ.P. 237, made by the defendant administrator of attorney Hindi’s estate on the basis, among other things, that Hindt did not commit legal malpractice in drafting the 1975 antenuptial agreement because the provisions that plaintiff Herbert Vande Kop claims he requested to be included in the antenuptial agreement were, at the time, void as contrary to public policy. Based upon this conclusion, the district court granted summary judgment in favor of defendant Hindi’s estate and dismissed the case.

Vande Kop appealed, contending that: (1) his claim generated fact issues based upon defendant decedent’s failure to include divorce provisions in the antenuptial agreement covering the plaintiffs second marriage; and (2) the decedent failed to fully advise the plaintiff regarding the agreement.

The court of appeals affirmed the district court’s decision. We granted Vande Kop’s application for further review.

II. Scope of review. Summary judgment is proper only when the entire record before the court shows there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Downs v. A & H Constr., 481 N.W.2d 520, 522 (Iowa 1992); Hike v. Hall, 427 N.W.2d 158, 159 (Iowa 1988). In determining whether the district court appropriately granted summary judgment, we review for errors at law. See Iowa R.App.P. 4.

The record in this case consists of the pleadings, motion for summary judgment and resistance thereto, affidavits, depositions, and exhibits. Based upon the foregoing, the district court determined that no genuine issue of material fact existed and thus Hindi’s estate was entitled to judgment as a matter of law.

III. Failure to include divorce provision in antenuptial agreement. Plaintiff Herbert Vande Kop asserts several reasons the district court erred in granting summary judgment against his claim of legal malpractice by attorney Harvey Hindt.

In order to establish a prima facie claim of legal malpractice, plaintiff must produce substantial evidence that shows: (1) the existence of an attorney-client relationship giving rise to a duty; (2) the attorney, either by an act or failure to act, violated or breached that duty; (3) the attorney’s breach of duty proximately caused injury to the client; and (4) the client sustained actual injury, loss, or damage. Schmitz v. Crotty, 528 N.W.2d 112, 115 (Iowa 1995) (citing Dessel v. Dessel, 431 N.W.2d 359, 361 (Iowa 1988)).

The focus of this ease is on the second element: breach of duty. An attorney breaches the duty of care owed to a client when the attorney fails to use “such skill, prudence and diligence as lawyers of ordinary skill and capacity commonly possess and exercise in the performance of the task which [is undertaken].” Id. at 115 (citing *612 Martinson Mfg. Co. v. Seery, 351 N.W.2d 772, 775 (Iowa 1984)).

We examine plaintiffs contentions.

A. Vande Kop’s contentions. Vande Kop contends that Hindt was negligent in drafting the antenuptial agreement due to the fact that no provisions were included in the agreement concerning the situation in which the marriage terminated due to dissolution. Vande Kop claims that his desire in seeking an antenuptial agreement was to receive “divorce insurance.”

Vande Kop further asserts that, had the agreement included the provisions he allegedly requested, he is certain Ella Marie would have signed it, and thus the result of the divorce proceeding would have been much more favorable to him. In review of the record, however, there is no indication that Ella Marie would indeed have signed an antenuptial agreement containing divorce provisions. Rather, the record clearly demonstrates that Ella Marie was reluctant to sign an antenuptial agreement and that she finally did so only upon the insistence of Vande Kop.

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Bluebook (online)
528 N.W.2d 609, 1995 Iowa Sup. LEXIS 55, 1995 WL 134884, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vande-kop-v-mcgill-iowa-1995.