The state’s six sitting Supreme Court justices were left Tuesday to decide whether an insurance company that settled for $5 million when it felt the insured’s lawyer was badly losing a case could then sue the lawyer for malpractice even though he ultimately secured a defense verdict.
Attorney Clifford E. Haines told the justices at oral argument Tuesday in Philadelphia that the lower courts defied logic in finding his client, Ohio Casualty Insurance Co., had no damages against defense lawyer Walter J. Timby III and his firm Margolis Edelstein to present to a jury given the defense verdict against Ohio’s insured. Haines pointed to the $5 million Ohio paid to settle personal injury claims against its insureds, Ingerman Construction and other related entities.
