Zenith Star Insurance Co. v. Wilkerson

This case requires us to consider to what lengths an attorney must go to zealously represent his client and avoid legal-malpractice liability. It involves a claim by Zenith Star Insurance Company (Zenith) that its lawyer, Glen Wilkerson, committed legal malpractice in a suit seeking workers compensation benefits by failing to advance two theories--that venue under the workers compensation scheme is jurisdictional and that a plaintiffs misidentification of a defendant is an affirmative defense. In the original suit seeking benefits, Zenith initially prevailed on a plea to the jurisdiction in a Guadalupe County district court. The Fourth Court of Appeals upheld that decision, but Zenith lost on remand after the court of appeals reversed its decision sua sponte and a jury found in favor of the worker on the merits of the case. Zenith alleges that Wilkersons negligence proximately caused its damages in the form of losing at trial on remand. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Wilkerson. We conclude as a matter of law that Wilkerson was not negligent in failing to assert the jurisdiction and misidentification theories and that such failure was not the proximate cause of Zeniths injury. Therefore, we affirm the summary judgment granted by the district court.