Professional Negligence Law Reporter

A Florida appellate court held that a client’s former counsel was not liable in a wrongful death suit brought after the client’s suicide.

John Andreasen suffered disabling injuries in a collision with an uninsured motorist. After several years of litigation against his insurer and his own counsel, Andreasen died by suicide. His brother, on behalf of his estate, sued Andreasen’s former counsel, alleging wrongful death and survival claims. The plaintiff claimed that negligence and legal negligence were the proximate cause of Andreasen’s death. Specifically, the plaintiff asserted that counsel’s alleged failure to competently litigate claims against the insurer led to Andreasen’s financial difficulties, which prevented him from paying for ongoing treatment and medication.

The trial court dismissed the lawsuit for failure to state a claim. The court concluded that the defendant did not owe Andreasen a legal duty to prevent his suicide.

Affirming, the appellate court noted that to prove wrongful death, a plaintiff must establish that a defendant had caused a decedent’s death through some wrongful act. Citing case law, the court said there is no liability for the suicide of another absent a specific duty of care. Moreover, the court found, a legal duty to prevent self-inflicted harm requires more than mere foreseeability. A person must be in a position to control the risk, the court said.

The court found that the plaintiff did not allege that the defendant was aware that Andreasen was suicidal or that counsel had any legal ability to exercise supervision or control over Andreasen’s daily activities during the period of representation. Although medical professionals may, in some circumstances, have a duty to intervene when they are aware of a patient’s potential suicide, no court has extended a similar duty to attorneys, the court said, declining to impose one here.

Consequently, the court concluded that the trial court had properly dismissed the plaintiff’s claims.

Citation: Andreasen v. Klein, 2022 WL 2231576 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. June 22, 2022).