Metzinger

Plaintiffs Margaret Miller (hereinafter Miller) and her adult children (Lariy, Michael and Karen Miller) appeal from a summary judgment in favor of defendants Lewis Metzinger (hereinafter Metzinger) and Sepulveda & Metzinger, a professional corporation, in plaintiffs’ suit for attorney malpractice.

A prior action for wrongful death (medical malpractice against two doctors and a hospital) brought by plaintiffs as heirs of Jack Miller was decided in favor of the defendants therein after a bifurcated trial of the defense of statute of limitations (Code Civ. Proc., § 340.5). Jack Miller died on January 4, 1973, and plaintiffs were found to be chargeable with knowledge of the cause of his death as of that date. The suit was not commenced until January 3.0, 1974.

The complaint in the case at bench charged four different attorneys or law firms with negligently failing to bring the wrongful death action within the applicable statute of limitations. It alleged that the first attorneys consulted (in early 1973) were Rudofsky & Meo, and that after they obtained copies of decedent’s medical records they declined to handle the matter. However, the records were sent to the second…