Boranian

Although a lawyer retained to provide testamentary legal services to a testator may also have a duty to act with due care for the interests of an intended third party beneficiary, the lawyer’s primary duty is owed to his client and his primary obligation is to serve and carry out the client’s intentions. Where, as here, there is a question about whether the third-party beneficiary was, in fact, the decedent’s intended beneficiary, and the beneficiary’s claim is that the lawyer failed to adequately ascertain the testator’s intent or capacity, the lawyer will not be held accountable to the beneficiary—because any other conclusion would place the lawyer in an untenable position of divided loyalty. We reverse the judgment before us.

FACTS

A.

Marlene Farris, a widow, met Placido Chavez in 1998, and Chavez moved in with Farris not long after that. Farris told her daughter (Juanita Boranian) that she was lonely and needed a companion.

In mid-1999, Farris refinanced her house and used most of the proceeds to purchase a laundromat for $120,000. Chavez operated the business but paid nothing toward its purchase or operation (he had few assets of his own). Farris did not tell her…