United States Ninth Circuit

A judgment awarding almost $360,000 in attorneys' fees to an attorney and his law firm in payment for certain legal services allegedly provided to certain Arizona limited partnerships is reversed in part and remanded as plaintiffs could not recover from defendants-limited partner and wife the legal fees owed by the LPs since: 1) because plaintiff owed a fiduciary duty of care to its clients, it was chargeable under the facts of this case with knowledge of the contents of the LPs' organic documents, whether or not it actually examined them; and 2) consequently, it was not reasonable for plaintiff to believe that defendant was a general partner of either of the LPs.

Appellate Information

• Decided 10/12/2007
• Published 10/12/2007

Judges

• MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge:, Before: JAY S. BYBEE and MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judges, and J. MICHAEL SEABRIGHT, District Judge.

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• Richard J. McDaniel, Phoenix, AZ, for the defendants-appellants., Timothy A. Shimko, Timothy A. Shimko & Associates, Cleveland, OH, for the plaintiffs-appellees.