California Appellate Tracker

Yale v. Bowne

March 20, 2017

Trial court did not err by giving jury instructions on comparative negligence in legal malpractice claim brought against plaintiff’s former lawyer for drafting a trust instrument for the plaintiff that did not retain the character of her separate property, since plaintiff had herself read and understood relevant portions of the trust before signing it.

In this attorney malpractice case, the jury was properly instructed on comparative negligence. The lawyer had created a trust for the client that did not retain the character of her separate property, one of her stated objectives. However, the client had read crucial portions of the trust, including its granting clauses, before signing it, and she was well aware of the separate property issue since she had endured a bad experience recently regarding that issue in divorcing her prior husband. Yet, the client remained silent about the fact that the clauses she read transformed her separate property into community property.

California Court of Appeal, Second District, Division 2 (Goodman, J., sitting by assignment); February 9, 2017 (modified & partially published March 10, 2017); 2017 WL 947608

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