Canton Poultry & Deli, Inc. v. Stockwell, Harris, Widom & Woolverton

Plaintiff Canton Poultry & Deli, Inc. (Canton Poultry), and two of its officers, Shiu Lit Kwan and Cho Wah Kwan (collectively with Canton Poultry, plaintiffs), appeal from an order of dismissal entered after a demurrer was sustained to their complaint without leave to amend. The dismissal was entered in favor of Attorneys Daniel Ysabal and Mark Huang and the law firm that employs them, Stockwell, Harris, Widom & Woolverton (Ysabal, Huang, and collectively with the law firm defendant, Stockwell).

This case has its beginnings in a workers’ compensation claim filed by plaintiffs’ employee, Andrew Duran. Stockwell was retained by Canton Poultry’s workers’ compensation carrier, California Indemnity Insurance Company (California Indemnity), to handle the claim.

According to the allegations in plaintiffs’ complaint, Andrew Duran (Duran) also filed a civil suit against plaintiffs and was interested in a global settlement of his two actions. The complaint alleges that Stockwell knew of the civil suit and Duran’s desire for such a settlement, but failed to inform plaintiffs of these matters and thus no global settlement was ever reached. According to the complaint, the upshot was…