Jury find Edwards Wildman did not breach duty to client

LOS ANGELES — A jury awarded no damages Monday when it found that Edwards Wildman Palmer LLP did not breach its fiduciary duty to its client, a disbarred British solicitor suing a tabloid newspaper, but did work to assemble a team of lawyers to act against him. After the four-week legal malpractice trial Superior Court Judge Terry A. Green called “the strangest case I think I’ve ever seen,” the 12-person panel found neither Edwards Wildman nor its attorney Dominique Shelton, a named defendant, breached their contract with plaintiff Shahrokh Mireskandari.

Defense attorney John Moscarino of Valle Makoff LLP said, “We are pleased with the jury’s decision today and are confident that the verdict will withstand the appeal process,”

“I see that they found one breach but no damages. Would you agree, plaintiff?” Green asked shortly after the reading of the verdict.

Several jurors disagreed on various points in the verdict after it was read out in court.

The jury, which began deliberating Friday, also said instruction given to Mireskandari by Shelton and the firm regarding anti-SLAPP aspects of his case against the Daily Mail was handled correctly and neither party knowingly acted against him regarding Shelton’s qualifications.

Shelton testified during the trial that she knew an anti-SLAPP motion was a probable defense in a libel or invasion of privacy case against a media organization despite Mireskandari’s allegations that she did not tell him and that she and the firm misrepresented their expertise. Shahrokh Mireskandari v. Edwards Wildman Palmer, BC517799 (Filed Aug 9, 2013, L.A. Sup. Ct.).

Additionally, the jury found neither the firm or Shelton failed to disclose malpractice and did not abandon their client, as he alleged.

Green called it a “very difficult case,” adding that the parties involved encountered “very sophisticated legal concepts that we struggled with.”

In its sole finding of a breach, the jury found that while Shelton did not work to assemble a team of lawyers to work against Mireskandari, the firm itself did, once it decided that Mireskandari had become combative with them.

Mireskandari was disbarred in Britain after the Daily Mail ran a series of 2008 stories alleging he had fabricated legal qualifications and hidden criminal convictions.

On the question of Mireskandari coming into the case with “unclean hands,” an instruction Green gave them to decide, the jury decided that he did not and was therefore not barred from receiving damages. However, they awarded him none. The jury found Mireskandari had suffered no harm or could reasonably avoided harm from paying his $50,000 retainer to Edwards Wildman, from over $53,000 in damages he sought from Greenberg Glusker Fields Claman & Machtinger and from the Daily Mail’s $113,000 in attorney fees as well as fees associated with the work of Greenberg Glusker, Seyfarth Shaw LLP and Novak Druce Connolly Bove + Quigg LLP, the jury found.

Some jurors dissented on several aspects of the decision when they were polled by Green shortly after their verdict was read.

Two jurors disagreed that Shelton did not act against her client regarding anti-SLAPP aspects of the case. One juror disagreed that the firm did not act against Mireskandari regarding anti-SLAPP.

Two jurors similarly disagreed that Shelton did not act against her client by failing to disclose malpractice. Three disagreed that the firm did not act against Mireskandari in this aspect

On the issue of abandonment, one juror disagreed that the firm did not abandon Mireskandari.

Three jurors disagreed that Mireskandari could have reasonably avoided harm by not receiving $113,000 in attorney fees from the Daily Mail. Similarly, three jurors disagreed that he did not suffer harm by not receiving those fees.

Defense attorney John M. Moscarino and co-counsel Katherine P. Balatbat of Valle Makoff LLP could not immediately be reached for comment.

Neither plaintiff’s attorneys Becky James and Jaya C. Gupta of James & Associates nor Kathleen Bliss of Kathleen Bliss Law could be reached for comment.