Fife M. Whiteside, as Trustee in Bankruptcy for the Chapter 7 bankruptcy estate of Zeferino Lucio-Anaya, sued Lucio-Anaya’s former attorneys, Decker, Hallman, Barber & Briggs, P.C. and W. Winston Briggs, individually, collectively, Decker Hallman claiming that Decker Hallman is liable for damages resulting from a judgment in excess of insurance coverage rendered against Lucio-Anaya in an automobile accident case. The Trustee claimed that Decker Hallman, which was hired by the liability insurer to represent Lucio-Anaya in the accident case, breached fiduciary duties owed to Lucio-Anaya by failing to inform him that he had a potential claim against the insurer for bad-faith or negligent failure to settle, and that this was a proximate cause of the excess judgment. Because we find that any alleged breach of fiduciary duty was not a proximate cause of the claimed damages, we affirm the trial court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of Decker Hallman in Case No. A11A0273. Decker Hallman’s cross-claim in Case No. A11A0274 is dismissed as moot. 1. In July 2000 Lucio-Anaya caused a fatal automobile accident by driving a car across the center line and colliding with another vehicle. The collision killed one occupant of the other vehicle, injured another occupant, and caused Bicente Moreno, a passenger in the car with Lucio-Anaya, to suffer severe coma-inducing head injuries requiring appointment of a guardian to manage his affairs. The car Lucio-Anaya was driving, but did not own, was insured by a liability insurance policy issued to a third person by Atlanta Casualty Company, now known as Infinity Casualty Insurance Company ICIC, which provided limits for bodily injury of $15,000 per claim and $30,000 per occurrence. Despite questions over whether the policy provided coverage, ICIC elected to defend the claims arising from the accident and settled claims made by the victims in the other vehicle for the policy limits. After ICIC allegedly missed pre-suit opportunities to settle with Moreno’s appointed guardian for the $15,000 policy limit see Anaya v. Coello , 279 Ga. App. 578 632 SE2d 425 2006, Moreno by his guardian sued Lucio-Anaya on the accident claim on June 12, 2002. On June 27, 2002, an attorney hired by the guardian sent a letter to ICIC which referred to ICIC’s failure to timely respond to pre-suit offers to settle for the $15,000 policy limit and demanded $2,000,000 to settle the suit. On July 12, 2002, ICIC hired Decker Hallman to represent Lucio-Anaya in defense of the suit. After ICIC rejected the $2,000,000 settlement demand and a later $10,000,000 demand, the case was eventually tried, and a jury returned a verdict for Moreno in June 2005 for $8,000,000 plus interest which was made the judgment of the court.
At the request of Moreno’s guardian, Lucio-Anaya was placed into involuntary Chapter 7 bankruptcy in September 2006, and Whiteside was appointed Trustee in the bankruptcy case. In April 2007 the Trustee sued ICIC claiming it was liable for the judgment against Lucio-Anaya in excess of the ICIC policy limits because of bad-faith or negligent failure to settle for policy limits. ICIC settled this suit for payment of $8,000,000 to Lucio-Anaya’s bankruptcy estate. After deduction of attorney fees, about $4,500,000 of the settlement was paid to the estate’s creditor, Moreno, in partial satisfaction of Moreno’s judgment against Lucio-Anaya. The Trustee then filed the present suit against Decker Hallman seeking to recover the difference between the amount paid to Moreno and the value of Moreno’s $8,000,000 judgment with interest, plus attorney fees, costs, and punitive damages.
