Austin v. Superior Court

We follow now-well-established precedent holding that a lawyer sued by a former client for legal malpractice may not cross-complain against plaintiff’s present lawyer for indemnity or contribution. Because our previous decision in a malicious prosecution case was misinterpreted as permitting such a cross-complaint, we publish this decision.

Facts

Plaintiff Bessie Austin, represented by Smith, Smith & Harter, LLP (collectively, with two members of that firm, SS&H), sued Chambers, Noronha & Lowry and several members of that firm (collectively CN&L), for legal malpractice. The thrust of the allegations is that CN&L, by previously suing the wrong defendants, permitted the statute of limitations to run on Austin’s medical malpractice claim. CN&L filed a cross-complaint against SS&H asserting a cause of action for equitable indemnity or contribution. This latter claim is based on allegations that SS&H negligently caused and increased plaintiff’s damages in failing to salvage the sinking medical malpractice vessel by not pursuing that claim, once they took over as Austin’s lawyers.

SS&H demurred to the cross-complaint, contending that, in an action for legal malpractice,…