OCTOBER 31, 2011 VOLUME 18 NUMBER 37
Floyd Spence, a Republican Congressman from South Carolina, was a long-time survivor of a heart-lung transplant and a (separate) kidney transplant when he died in 2001, at the age of 73. He was survived by his second wife, Deborah Spence, and four adult sons from his first marriage (his first wife had died in 1978).
As Congressman Spence lay dying in a Mississippi hospital, Mrs. Spence realized that she might need legal counsel to sort out what she would receive from his estate and his congressional life insurance policy. She consulted Kenneth B. Wingate, a prominent lawyer in Columbia, South Carolina. They discussed the fact that she had signed a prenuptial agreement prior to marrying Congressman Spence, that he had initially named her as one of five beneficiaries (along with her stepsons) on his $500,000 life insurance policy, and that she believed he had changed the beneficiary designation to name her alone.
Mr. Wingate advised Mrs. Spence that she should consider entering into an agreement with her stepsons about how the estate would be divided upon Congressman Spence’s death, since there were uncertainties arising from his two different wills, the beneficiary designation and her possible rights under South Carolina law. She agreed, and a settlement of any possible dispute was quickly negotiated and signed. Congressman Spence died, as it happened, the day after the settlement was finalized. The settlement provided for a trust, to be funded with one-third of Congressman Spence’s probate assets and paying its income to her for the rest of her life.
About two weeks later, Mr. Wingate visited Mrs. Spence and informed her that he had been retained to represent the Estate of her late husband. He did not tell her that there might be a conflict of interest in that representation, and he did not ask her to acknowledge any conflict or sign a waiver. In fact, he told her that she would no longer need separate counsel, since the possible conflicts had all been resolved.
Over the next few months Mrs. Spence began to think that she had made a bad bargain. She became convinced that she would have received more from either her husband’s last will or South Carolina’s laws providing for surviving spouses. At a family meeting with her four stepsons and Mr. Wingate, however, her former attorney suggested that she should forgo her right to receive the entire life insurance policy in order to make the boys “whole again.” She did not want to agree, arguing that they should not alter her late husband’s wishes.
After the family meeting Mrs. Spence called Mr. Wingate and asked him to put his hat back on as her attorney and counsel her about the life insurance proceeds. He declined but, according to her, he did not tell her that she ought to seek new counsel or take any steps to protect her interest in the life insurance.
About a year after the Congressman’s death, Mrs. Spence filed a lawsuit seeking to set aside the agreement Mr. Wingate had negotiated for her. He promptly withdrew from representation of the Estate. Eventually the court set aside the agreement.
Mrs. Spence then sued Mr. Wingate, arguing (among other things) that he had breached his fiduciary duty to her as a former client by taking on a new client with an adversarial position. Particularly she argued that Mr. Wingate breached his duties to her in connection with the life insurance policy.
The trial judge dismissed that part of her complaint. Since the estate did not have any interest in or right to the insurance proceeds, the judge decided, Mr. Wingate could not breach any duty to her with regard to the policy. The South Carolina Court of Appeals, however, disagreed. The possibility of a breach of fiduciary duty would depend on the evidence at trial, ruled the appellate judges. The case should be returned to the trial court for further proceedings to determine whether there was in fact a breach of duty.
The South Carolina Supreme Court has now rendered its opinion on Mr. Wingate’s duties to Mrs. Spence. The state’s high court agreed with the Court of Appeals that more facts are needed, but made clear that the existence (or non-existence) of a fiduciary duty is a question of law for the trial judge to decide. In other words, the dispute was returned to the trial court for further hearings, and with an instruction to the trial judge to make a finding about whether Mr. Wingate owed a fiduciary duty to Mrs. Spence with regard to the insurance proceeds. If the judge decides that a duty has been shown, then a jury can determine whether Mr. Wingate breached that duty. Spence v. Wingate, October 17, 2011.
The decision of the Supreme Court was not unanimous, incidentally. Two of the five justices would have found that no fiduciary duty existed with regard to the insurance policy, and would therefore have upheld the partial summary judgment originally granted by the trial judge.
Is there a broader lesson in this story? Let us guess that Mr. Wingate today wishes he had declined to take on representation of the Spence estate, and stayed available to counsel Mrs. Spence as to her rights and her agreement. He may ultimately be vindicated, but that will be a less desirable outcome than never having been accused of breaching his duty in the first instance.
One Response
This reminds us of the need to be cautious about “potential” conflicts of interest when we undertake a representation. Our practice has always been to err on the side of caution. If there is even the slightest likelihood that problems may arise in the future, we decline representation and sleep much better at night knowing we avoided the temptation to take that “one more case.”