McMahon v. Shea

688 A.2d 1179 (1997)

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McMahon v. Shea

Pennsylvania Supreme Court
688 A.2d 1179 (1997)

  • Written by Jody Stuart, JD

Facts

Robert McMahon (plaintiff) was married to Janet Marshall and retained John Shea, Phyllis Shea, and Michael Dinney (collectively, the attorneys) (defendants) to represent him in divorce proceedings. McMahon and Marshall entered into a settlement agreement. Subsequently, on the advice of the attorneys, McMahon entered into a stipulation under which the settlement agreement would be incorporated but not merged into the final divorce decree. Due to this stipulation, McMahon was required to continue alimony payments that he would have been able to stop if the settlement agreement had been merged with the divorce decree. McMahon then filed a complaint in trial court against the attorneys, alleging that their conduct in failing to merge McMahon’s settlement agreement with the final divorce decree was malpractice. The trial court dismissed the complaint, and the superior court reversed the trial court’s order. The attorneys appealed.

Rule of Law

Issue

Holding and Reasoning (Zappala, J.)

Concurrence (Cappy, J.)

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