McGuire v. Mosley Rogers Title Co., L.L.C., 997 So.2d 23 (La. App. 2008)

Brief Summary
Clients who unreasonably failed to timely look at their attorney’s work were barred from bringing a legal malpractice claim by prescription, the Louisiana term for the running of the statue of limitations.

Complete Summary
Plaintiffs retained attorney Lance Mosley to help them with the sale of commercial real estate. The sale involved a mix of seller financing and a traditional loan. As a part of the deal, plaintiffs agreed to subordinate their mortgage to the lender’s mortgage. For protection, plaintiffs sought personal guarantees from the buyers and allegedly obtained Mosley’s assurance that he would secure such guarantees. After signing, plaintiffs received copies of the closing documents in the mail but did not even open the envelope, much less review the documents. Over one year later, when the buyers began to have trouble paying, plaintiffs discovered the absence of personal guarantees.

Plaintiffs then sued Mosley for legal malpractice for failure to obtain the personal guarantees. Mosley filed an exception based on prescription, or the statute of limitations. The trial court granted this exception and dismissed the case because the prescriptive period for legal malpractice is one year from when the malpractice should have been discovered. The trial court held that plaintiffs should have discovered the malpractice when they received the closing documents in the mail. Plaintiffs appealed.

The Louisiana Second Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the dismissal. The court held that the plaintiffs' failure to review the closing documents was unreasonable because they understood the risk and complexity of the transaction. Plaintiffs should have “at the very least open[ed] and review[ed] the closing documents when they received them . . . .”  Id. at 30.

Significance of Opinion
This holding places at lease some burden on sophisticated clients in significant matters to check the quality of an attorney’s work.

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