A v. B case brief

A v. B case brief summary
726 A.2d 924 (1999)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Appellant law firm challenged a decision from the Appellate Division, Superior Court (New Jersey), requiring the entry of an order imposing preliminary restraints and for further consideration, in an action in which appellant sought to disclose confidential information of one co-client to another co-client. Appellant filed motions in the court seeking leave to appeal, and to accelerate the appeal.

CASE FACTS
In the instant paternity action, appellant, the mother's former law firm, which contemporaneously represented respondent father and his wife in planning their estates, sought to disclose the existence of respondent's illegitimate child to the wife. Appellant had jointly represented the husband and wife in drafting wills in which they devised their respective estates to each other. The devises created the possibility that the other spouse's issue, whether legitimate or illegitimate, ultimately would acquire the decedent's property.

DISCUSSION

• The court held that respondent's deliberate omission of the existence of his illegitimate child constituted a fraud on his wife. 
• When discussing their respective estates with the firm, the couple reasonably could expect that each would disclose information material to the distribution of their estates, including the existence of children who were contingent residuary beneficiaries. 
• Respondent breached that duty. 
• The court concluded that appellant was permitted to inform the wife of the existence of the illegitimate child.

CONCLUSION

The court granted appellant's motion for leave to appeal, accelerated the appeal, and reversed the judgment of the lower court and remanded the matter. The court authorized the disclosure of the existence, but not the identity, of the child on the grounds that respondent husband had committed a fraud on his wife.

Suggested Study Aids For Wills, Trusts & Estate Law