Cooke v. Williams

Citations

• 349 Conn. 451

Syllabus

The plaintiff, who previously had been convicted of murder, among other crimes, sought to recover damages from the defendants, his former attorney and his law firm, for, inter alia, their alleged legal malpractice and fraud while representing him in connection with a federal civil rights action and a separate, state habeas action. In his unsuccessful habeas action, the plaintiff alleged that the attorney who had represented him at his murder trial provided ineffective assistance of counsel. In the present malpractice action, the plaintiff claimed, inter alia, that the defendants had failed to prosecute his habeas petition fully and properly. The trial court granted the defendants' motion to dismiss the plaintiff's claims relating to the habeas action, concluding that those claims sounded in legal malpractice and were not ripe for adjudication because the plaintiff's underlying criminal conviction had not been invalidated either on appeal or in a postconviction proceeding. The plaintiff appealed to the Appellate Court, asserting that the trial court had improperly dismissed his legal malpractice claim. The plaintiff also contended that the Appellate Court had improperly dismissed his fraud claim because it was distinct from any claim of legal malpractice. The Appellate Court affirmed the trial court's judgment with respect to the plaintiff's legal malpractice claim, but it reversed with respect to the fraud claim, reason- ing that the fraud claim was distinct from the legal malpractice claim because the former did not challenge the validity of the plaintiff's under- 452 JUNE, 2024 349 Conn. 451 Cooke v. Williams lying conviction. The plaintiff, on the granting of certification, appealed to this court. Held that, as a matter of form, the Appellate Court improperly affirmed the trial court's dismissal of the plaintiff's legal malpractice claim for lack of subject matter jurisdiction, this court having concluded that appellate or postconviction relief from the plaintiff