Supreme Court to hear appeal in malpractice case

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By OSKAR GARCIA / The Associated Press

A La Vista keno owner wants all the money he was awarded by a jury.

The Nebraska Supreme Court soon will hear a two-sided appeal in a legal malpractice case involving the keno operator and the state’s second-largest law firm.

Richard T. Bellino wants the court to reinstate a jury verdict awarding him $1.6 million.

But District Judge Patricia Lamberty ruled that the trial evidence did not justify that amount and ordered McGrath, North, Mullin & Kratz to pay Bellino $229,000.

“A jury verdict should be jealously guarded and maintained by our courts, and Nebraska law does not permit a district court to crown its view by underwriting a conclusion rightfully reached and supported by evidence, but not agreed to by the district court,” Bellino’s attorneys David A. Domina and Claudia Stringfield-Johnson wrote in a brief to the court.

The law firm wants the high court to dismiss the case entirely.

“An attorney who acts in good faith and with an honest belief that his or her actions are well founded in the law and in the best interest of his client, is not liable for malpractice even if he is mistaken,” attorneys John Douglas and David Blagg wrote in a brief for McGrath, North, Mullin & Kratz.

Douglas and Blagg wrote that the trial court should have ruled that Bellino’s attorneys caused him no damages.

A jury ruled in October 2005 that attorneys James D. Wegner, William F. Hargens and the firm did not properly advise Bellino about how to separate from his business partner before opening another business.

Bellino wanted to sever his partnership with Robert Anderson in La Vista Lottery and open his own business. His attorneys advised him to maintain 50 percent of his share with La Vista Lottery and open the competing La Vista Keno at the same time.

Anderson successfully sued Bellino after Bellino’s new business won a contract over La Vista Lottery to provide keno to the city.

The suit was based on a 1913 Nebraska Supreme Court ruling that an officer-shareholder “owes a duty of absolute loyalty” to his company and “may not harm it.”

Bellino sued his attorney soon thereafter.

The Supreme Court hearing was scheduled for May 30.