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Court Rules No Coverage For Pa. Law Firm's Malpractice Suit

11/26/18

By: Barry Brownstein
An insurer does not have to cover a Pennsylvania law firm in a professional malpractice suit that a client filed after the firm allegedly used privileged information to benefit its attorneys’ side business in a real estate development.
The United States District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania granted Westport Insurance Corp.’s motion for summary judgment in its case against Hippo Fleming & Pertile Law Offices (“HFP”) and attorney Charles Wayne Hippo Jr., agreeing with the insurer that the dispute over a shopping center development was exempted from coverage by the outside businesses exclusion in the firm’s professional liability policy.
Gregory Morris and Morris Development, one of HFP’s longtime clients, alleged that HFP had used information disclosed to the firm under attorney-client privilege to benefit a project by its side businesses, Templar Development and Templar Elmerton. Westport’s insurance policy contained a clear and unambiguous exclusion for lawsuits stemming from any of the policyholders’ outside businesses, and Hippo had not disclosed his involvement in the Templar companies when applying for the policy.
HFP argued that since the underlying lawsuit’s first two allegations of legal malpractice and breach of contract stemmed from the firm’s attorney-client relationship to Morris, Westport had a duty to defend them under the professional liability policy. The court, however, said it was Hippo’s dual role that gave rise to the claims against him.
The court emphasized that the plain language of the complaint in the underlying suit entirely discredits defendants’ argument that counts I and II are based solely on HFP’s role as Morris’s attorney. Counts I and II of the complaint allege that Hippo committed legal malpractice and breach of contract by simultaneously acting as Morris’s attorney and a competing real-estate developer. Therefore, the court held that Westport has no duty to defend because each claim in the underlying suit falls unambiguously within the policy’s outside business exclusion.
If you have any questions or would like more information, please contact Barry Brownstein at bbrownstein@fmglaw.com.