Argued: May 14, 2009
Before: MINER and WESLEY, Circuit Judges, and STANCEU, Judge.*fn2
Thekla Nordwind and Greta Hoerman, plaintiffs-counter-defendants-appellants-cross-appellees, Gerald B. Taylor as executor of the Estate of Michael Franke, plaintiff-third-party-defendant-counter-claimant-counter-defendant-appellant-cross-appellee, and Peter Franke-Ruta, counter-claimant-third-party-defendant-appellant-cross-appellee, (collectively the “plaintiffs” or the “Nordwind Parties”), appeal from a summary judgment entered on October 16, 2007, in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Pogue, J., sitting by designation), in favor of the plaintiffs’ former counsel David J. Rowland (“Rowland”) and Rowland & Associates, defendants-third-party-plaintiffs-counter-defendants-counter-claimants- appellees-cross-appellants, and Rowland & Petroff, defendant-counter-claimant-third-party-plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant (collectively, the “defendants”). As relevant to this appeal, the District Court dismissed (1) the Nordwind Parties’ claims against the defendants for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, and negligence, as duplicative of the plaintiffs’ claim against the defendants for legal malpractice; and (2) the Nordwind Parties’ legal malpractice claim against the defendants because, pursuant to German law, the Nordwind Parties would have only been entitled to 50% of the subject inheritance regardless of Rowland’s alleged malpractice; and denied (3) the Nordwind Parties’ claim of unjust enrichment and request to disqualify Rowland from further representation of clients whose interests in the subject inheritance are adverse to the Nordwind Parties’ interests. For the reasons that follow, we affirm the judgment of the District Court.
