Howard Walther v. Steven Kane , 597 F. App'x 623 ( 2015 )

Case: 14-13836 Date Filed: 03/02/2015 Page: 1 of 5
[DO NOT PUBLISH]
IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE ELEVENTH CIRCUIT
________________________
No. 14-13836
Non-Argument Calendar
________________________
D.C. Docket No. 6:13-cv-00472-RBD-GJK
KATHARINE WALTHER BAIN,
Plaintiff,
HOWARD WALTHER,
DOROTHY B. WALTHER,
Plaintiffs – Appellants,
versus
ROBERT MCINTOSH, et al.,
Defendants,
STEVEN KANE,
Esq.,
KANE & KOLTUN,
Attorneys at Law,
Defendants – Appellees.
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________________________
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Middle District of Florida
________________________
(March 2, 2015)
Before HULL, ROSENBAUM and BLACK, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Howard Walther and Dorothy B. Walther (collectively, the Walthers), the
beneficiaries of the James Walther Revocable Life Insurance Trust (the Trust),
appeal the district court’s order granting summary judgment in favor of Steven
Kane, Esq. and Kane and Koltun, Attorneys at Law (collectively, Kane). Kane
served as the attorney for the trustee, Patrick Walther (Trustee).1 The single issue
on appeal is whether, under Florida law, an attorney retained to represent only the
trustee also owes a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of the trust. The district
court held an attorney retained to represent the trustee has no such duty. Upon
review, we affirm. 2
1
In their initial brief, the Walthers concede no attorney-client relationship arose between
themselves and Kane. Kane was retained solely to represent the Trustee.
2
“We review a district court’s grant of summary judgment de novo, applying the same
legal standards that controlled the district court’s decision.” Levinson v. Reliance Standard Life
Ins. Co., 245 F.3d 1321, 1325 (11th Cir. 2001). Summary judgment is appropriate “if the
movant shows that there is no genuine dispute as to any material fact and the movant is entitled
to judgment as a matter of law.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a).
2
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The district court did not err in in granting summary judgment because Kane
owed no fiduciary duty to the Walthers under Florida law.3 The Florida
Legislature has indicated an unwillingness to expand a lawyer’s fiduciary duties to
a person other than the trustee. Pursuant to Florida Statutes § 90.5021(2) (2011),
“only the person or entity acting as a [trustee] is considered a client of the lawyer.”
Furthermore, the Rules Regulating the Florida Bar, which are promulgated by
Florida Supreme Court, narrowly limit a lawyer’s duties to third parties when
serving as the personal representative of an estate. R. Regulating Fla. Bar 4-1.7
cmt. (2014) (“In Florida, the personal representative is the client rather than the
estate or the beneficiaries.”); see also ABA Comm. on Ethics & Prof’l
Responsibility, Formal Op. 94-380 (1994) (“The majority of jurisdictions consider
that a lawyer who represents a fiduciary does not also represent the beneficiaries,
and we understand the Model Rules to reflect this majority view.” (citation
omitted)).
The Walthers have not identified any contrary legal authority in Florida
establishing a fiduciary relationship between a lawyer representing a trustee and
the beneficiaries of a trust. The Walthers’ reliance on McCormick v. Cox, 118 So.
3d 980 (Fla. 3d DCA 2013), is misplaced. In McCormick, the court held the
trustee, who also happened to be a lawyer, breached his fiduciary duty to the
3
“[F]ederal courts sitting in diversity jurisdiction must apply substantive state law.”
Bravo v. United States, 577 F.3d 1324, 1325 (11th Cir. 2009).
3
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beneficiaries of the trust. Id. at 982, 986–87. The court never decided whether an
attorney representing a trustee owes a fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries. The
trustee and the lawyer were the same person. Id. at 982.
The Walthers’ citation to In re Estate of Gory, 570 So. 2d 1381 (Fla. 4th
DCA 1990), is similarly unconvincing. The court in Gory said, “We have no
quarrel with the view that counsel for the personal representative of an estate owes
fiduciary duties not only to the personal representative but also to the beneficiaries
of the estate.” Id. at 1383. This statement, however, was dicta. The question
before the court was whether the law firm representing the personal representative
of an estate should have been disqualified from representation due to an alleged
conflict of interest with the beneficiaries of the estate. Id. at 1382–83. The court
held that, even if the law firm owed a fiduciary duty to the personal representative
and the beneficiaries, Florida law did not mandate disqualification because no
attorney-client relationship existed between the law firm and the beneficiaries. Id.
at 1383. Gory did not extend an attorney’s fiduciary duty to the beneficiaries of a
trust whenever an attorney agrees to represent a trustee. Accordingly, we conclude
Kane, as the attorney for the Trustee, owed no fiduciary duty to the Walther
beneficiaries.4
4
Because the Walthers failed to plainly and prominently argue in their initial brief that
they were intended third-party beneficiaries of the legal services contract between Kane and the
4
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For the foregoing reasons, we affirm the district court’s grant of summary
judgment.
AFFIRMED.
Trustee, they have abandoned this argument. United States v. Jernigan, 341 F.3d 1273, 1283 n.8
(11th Cir. 2003).
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