Fifth Circuit Rules In Favor of Attorney Immunity

When dealing with contentious litigation, I have occasionally had a client ask why we can't sue the opposing lawyer.  When I try to explain that the other lawyer is merely representing his client, I get a tirade about how evil the other attorney is.   The better answer, as shown by a recent Fifth Circuit opinion, is attorney immunity.    Case No. 17-11464, Troice v. Greenberg Traurig, LLP (5th Cir. 4/17/19).

 What Happened

 The R. Allen Stanford Ponzi Scheme was and is a big deal.   Allen Stanford was a bankrupt former gym owner who bought a bank in Antigua and peddled bogus CDs, causing billions of dollars of losses over a period of twenty-one years.   For part of that time, Stanford was represented by a partner at Greenberg Traurig named Carlos Loumiet, who later moved his practice to Hunton & Williams.   In 2009, the SEC obtained a receivership over the Stanford entities and Ralph Janvey was named as Receiver.  In 2012, the Receiver brought suit against Greenberg Traurig and Hunton & Williams, among others, for their role in representing the Stanford Financial entities.   Three investors also brought a class action suit against the lawyers.    Hunton & Williams settled and was dismissed.   Greenberg Traurig moved to dismiss the investor suit based on attorney immunity.   The District Court granted judgment on the pleadings.   

Attorney Immunity

According to the Texas Supreme Court attorney immunity is a "comprehensive affirmative defense protecting attorneys from liability to non-clients.   Cantey Hanger, LLP v. Byrd, 467 S.W.3d 477, 481 (Tex. 2015).   It applies where the "alleged conduct was within the scope of . . . legal representation."  Id. at 484.

On appeal, the investors argued that three exceptions to attorney immunity applied.   This required the Fifth Circuit to predict what the Texas Supreme Court would do.   The investors urged the Fifth Circuit to certify the question to the Texas Supreme Court.  The Fifth Circuit did not take them up on this request.

The first exception argued was that attorney immunity should only protect attorneys engaged in litigation.   The Fifth Circuit did not have any trouble dispatching this argument, since it relied on the dissent in Cantey Hanger and dissents are not winning arguments.

Next, they argued that participation in a crime was not subject to immunity.   Criminal conduct can negate attorney immunity.  The Fifth Circuit held that "We conclude that criminal conduct does not automatically negate immunity, but in the usual case it will be outside the scope of representation."  Opinion, p. 8.    The Texas Supreme Court has stated that assaulting opposing counsel during trial would be an example of unimmunized conduct.   However, it would fall outside the protections of immunity "not because it could be criminal, but 'because it does not involve the provision of legal services and would thus fall outside the scope of client representation.'"   Opinion, p. 8.   The Court concluded that "Thus, immunity can apply even to criminal acts so long as the attorney was acting within the scope of representation."   Opinion, p. 9.  I will return to this later.

Finally, the investors argued that Greenberg Traurig aided and abetted Stanford's violations of the Texas Securities Act and that the statute abrogated the common law attorney immunity.  However, the Fifth Circuit found that "The Act contains no explicit abrogation of immunity."   Opinion, p. 10.  The Court also noted that attorney immunity has been applied in under the Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Act.   The Court said, "We conclude that the Supreme Court of Texas would not consider itself sure that the Texas legislature intended to abrogate attorney immunity in the context of TSA claims."

As a result, the Fifth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of claims against Greenberg Traurig.

Greenberg Traurig's appellate victory is not the end of the story.  It is still being sued by Ralph Janvey, the Receiver.   An attorney does not have immunity when its client is suing for malpractice or similar theories.   When a third party is hurt by advice that an attorney gave his client, the proper procedure is that the third party can sue the client and the client can then sue the attorney.   This way the attorney is held responsible by the person to whom he owed the duty.

When Can an Attorney Be Liable to a Non-Client? 

While the attorneys in this case successfully urged attorney immunity, there are plenty of instances in which an attorney can be held liable to a non-party.   The most obvious examples are Fed.R.Civ.P. 11 and Fed.R.Bankr.P. 9011 and 28 U.S.C. Sec. 1927.   The rules specifically apply to actions of attorneys in litigation and allow attorney to be punished for actions in violation of the rules.   28 U.S.C. Sec. 1927 allows the Court to impose liability to an attorney who "multiplies the proceedings in any case unreasonably and vexatiously."

Next, there are attorneys who commit a direct tort.   For example, if the attorneys in this case had made fraudulent representations directly to the investors to get them to invest, they could have been sued for fraud.   This was recognized in In re Educators Group Health Trust, 25 F.3d 1281, 1285 (5th Cir. 1994) where the Court stated:

 We do agree, however, with the plaintiff school districts' contention that some of the causes of action allege a direct injury to themselves, which is not derivative of any harm to the debtor. For example, the plaintiff school districts allege in paragraph XI of the complaint that the defendants intentionally misrepresented to them the financial situation of EGHT, and that they materially relied on such representations to their detriment. To the extent that this cause of action and others allege a direct injury to the plaintiff school districts, they belong to the plaintiff school districts and not the estate.     

Then there is the question of what acts fall within the scope of the representation.    The Fifth Circuit said that assaulting opposing counsel would necessarily be outside of the scope of the representation.  However, what if opposing counsel was about to make a damaging point and the client said, "You need to shut him up?"  Would it be within the scope of the representation if the client asked the attorney to assault opposing counsel to help with his case?   What if a client tells an attorney to destroy incriminating evidence as part of the representation or worse, breaks into opposing counsel's office and sets fire to his filing cabinet?  I am tempted to say that only conduct which attorneys are permitted to take can fall within the scope of the representation.  However, the Fifth Circuit said that "immunity can apply even to criminal acts so long as the attorney was acting within the scope of representation."   Attorneys cannot ethically engage in criminal acts in the course of their representation.   Therefore I am at a loss at to what criminal activities an attorney could engage in within the scope of representing a client.

 

Fifth Circuit Resolves Multi-State Perfection Puzzle

In a lesson that the Uniform Commercial Code is not always uniform between various states, the Fifth Circuit resolved a lien priority dispute pertaining to a Texas debtor who brought agricultural products in Oregon, Michigan and Tennessee.    The opinion in a valuable primer in choice of law issues in UCC cases as well as how failure to strictly comply with state statutes can lead to loss of lien priority.   Fishback Nursey, Incorporated v. PNC Bank, National Association, Case No. 18-10090 (5th Circuit 4/10/19).

What Happened

 BFN Operations, LLC was a wholesale grower of trees, shrubs, and other plants, with headquarters in Texas and offices in Michigan, Oregon and Tennessee.   

PNC held a blanket lien in the debtor's assets which pre-dated the claims of two vendors to the debtor, Fishback and Surface.

Fishback sold agricultural products to the debtor and filed UCCs in Oregon, Michigan and Tennessee.   It listed the debtor as BFN Operations, LLC abn Zelenka Farms.  It also filed a notice of lien in Oregon.

Surface filed a UCC in Michigan using the name "BFN Operations, LLC abn Zelenka Farms.

When BFN filed chapter 11, PNC extended debtor-in-possession financing which would outrank other liens "subject and junior only to . . . valid, enforceable, properly perfected, and unavoidable pre-petition liens."

Fishback and Surface filed suit against PNC in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas seeking a declaration that their liens were superior to those of PNC.

The District Court ruled that applicable choice of law rules dictated that the law of the states where the agricultural products were shipped should govern the lien perfection and priority dispute.  It then found that PNC had the prior lien because Fishback and Surface had failed to properly perfect.

The Court's Ruling

The first thing that the Fifth Circuit had to do was decide whether the District Court correctly determined that the law of the states where the agricultural products were shipped would apply.  The Court noted that choice of law could be applied based upon either the law of the forum state or under federal choice-of-law rules.   This is an open question in the Fifth Circuit.  The District Court found that it did not have to pick a side because both answers pointed to the states where the ag products were shipped.   The Fifth Circuit agreed.   Under the Texas UCC, if farm products are located in a jurisdiction, the local law of that jurisdiction applies to perfection, the effect of perfection and the priority of an agricultural lien on farm products.   Tex.Bus.&Com. Code Sec. 9.302.   Federal law relies on the Restatement (Second) of Conflicts of Law Sec. 251(2) which provides that absent "effective choice of law by the parties" the court should give "greater weight . . . to the location of the chattel at the time that the security interest attached."

Fishback argued that Oregon law should apply because its contracts contained a choice of law provision selecting Oregon law.  However, those provisions were included in a contract between the Debtor and Fishback.  As a result, they were not binding on PNC.

Each of the laws of the forum states had some quirky provisions.   In  Michigan and Tennessee, a UCC must be filed based on the debtor's name exactly as it appears on the public documents creating the entity.  In this case, the company's legal name was BFN Operations, LLC, not BFN Operations, LLC abn Zelenka Farms.   This may seem like a trivial distinction given that the name given was correct but added extra verbiage.   However, the Court found that it was "undisputed that, under the strict search logics in these states, searching with BFN’s correct name would not uncover the incorrectly named liens."    While this seems foolish, the states set out their search logic in regulations adopted to implement the UCC and that search logic would not catch the longer name.

Oregon was a different matter.  Agricultural liens in Oregon are automatically perfected until 45 days after the debt is due.  After that date, the party must file an extension supported by an affidavit.  Fishback did file an extension but it was not within the 45 day window so that PNC's lien jumped in front of its.  Fishback argued that its UCC filing met the requirement for the affidavit, but the Fifth Circuit found that it lacked the requisite information and would be misleading as an affidavit.

Takeaways

As bankruptcy lawyers, we are usually called in after the filings have been made and the lien perfection facts have been established.   Therefore, the biggest lesson for bankruptcy lawyers is that when dealing with multi-state perfection issues, there may be room to look for strategies to upset other parties' lien expectations.   

When dealing with the front end of a transaction, it makes good sense to consult with a local lawyer to find out the quirks in local lien law, whether it is the UCC or mechanics liens or real property mortgages.  One consequence of our federal system is that despite the efforts to draft uniform laws, states are perfectly free to implement traps for the unwary.