Bonnie L. Allen v. Alexander F. McCann
120 A.3d 90
| Me. | 2015Background
- In June 2002 Bonnie Allen suffered workplace injuries and retained attorney Alexander McCann in December 2002 to handle her workers’ compensation claim.
- Allen stopped working in August 2004; employer began paying benefits but disputed total disability.
- McCann represented Allen through a 2006 WCB hearing that resulted in an award of partial incapacity benefits (hearing officer found no evidence of a work search and imputed about $200/week earnings).
- McCann advised Allen she was not required to do a work search; Allen later obtained SSDI benefits in 2007 with McCann’s help.
- Allen replaced McCann with attorney MacAdam in 2009, who performed a work search and later negotiated a $300,000 settlement of the workers’ compensation claim in 2012.
- Allen sued McCann for legal malpractice (claiming failure to advise a work search caused loss); the superior court granted McCann summary judgment, and Allen appealed.
Issues
| Issue | Plaintiff's Argument | Defendant's Argument | Held |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether McCann’s failure to advise Allen to perform a work search breached duty and caused her to lose an award of total incapacity benefits | Allen: McCann negligently failed to advise a work search; with a work search she would have been found totally disabled | McCann: WCB already ruled on benefits; causation speculative and not established | Court: Issue of whether she could have obtained total benefits may exist, but subsumed by damages problem — causation as to ultimate loss is speculative |
| Whether Allen proved non-speculative damages from McCann’s alleged negligence (given later $300,000 settlement) | Allen: She would have received greater workers’ comp benefits and a higher settlement absent McCann’s advice; SSDI offsets irrelevant or insufficient | McCann: Settlement evidence makes any damages calculation speculative; other settlement factors unknown | Court: Summary judgment affirmed — damages are speculative because settlement terms and motivations cannot be reconstructed reliably |
| Whether SSDI benefits as a collateral source affect damages analysis | Allen: SSDI should not fully offset workers’ comp damages | McCann: Collateral source argument relevant to damages | Court: Did not decide collateral-source issue because settlement made damages speculative regardless |
Key Cases Cited
- Garland v. Roy, 976 A.2d 940 (Me. 2009) (elements of legal-malpractice claim: duty, breach, proximate causation, and damages)
- Niehoff v. Shankman & Assocs. Legal Ctr, P.A., 763 A.2d 121 (Me. 2000) (causation requires more than speculation; mere possibility insufficient)
- Angell v. Hallee, 92 A.3d 1154 (Me. 2014) (summary-judgment standard and genuine-issue-of-material-fact analysis)
- Cote Corp. v. Kelley Earthworks, Inc., 97 A.3d 127 (Me. 2014) (de novo appellate review of summary judgment)