The Fifth District Appellate Court affirmed several orders by Madison County Circuit Judge Christopher Threlkeld in a general contractor’s lawsuit alleging its insurer should be compelled to defend an underlying suit involving faulty elevators.
A St. Louis law firm and two attorneys are petitioning the Illinois Supreme Court to review the Fifth District Appellate Court’s ruling that punitive damages are recoverable in legal malpractice cases.
Moore
The Fifth District Appellate Court held that punitive damages are recoverable in legal malpractice cases, concluding that in such circumstances the punitive damages are “compensatory in nature.”
“In short, we agree that punitive damages that are assessed against a litigant as a proximate result of the professional negligence of its attorney are not, in the context of a subsequent legal malpractice action against the attorney, punitive in nature but are, indeed, compensatory in nature and therefore not barred …” wrote Justice James Randy Moore in the ruling.
Moore delivered the April 28 opinion with justices Mark Boie and John Barberis concurring.
Moore
The Fifth District Appellate Court held that punitive damages are recoverable in legal malpractice cases, concluding that in such circumstances the punitive damages are “compensatory in nature.”
“In short, we agree that punitive damages that are assessed against a litigant as a proximate result of the professional negligence of its attorney are not, in the context of a subsequent legal malpractice action against the attorney, punitive in nature but are, indeed, compensatory in nature and therefore not barred …” wrote Justice James Randy Moore in the ruling.
Moore delivered the April 28 opinion with justices Mark Boie and John Barberis concurring.