Law Offices of Jerris Leonard, P.C. v. Mideast Systems, Ltd.
United States District Court for the District of Columbia
111 F.R.D. 359 (1986)
After the Department of the Interior prevailed against Mideast Systems, Ltd. and China Civil Construction (MS/CCC) (defendants) in earlier litigation where they were represented by the Law Offices of Jerris Leonard, P.C. (Leonard) (plaintiff), MS/CCC failed to pay their legal fees, and Leonard sued for the unpaid fees in federal court, obtaining a default judgment when MS/CCC never appeared. Nearly a year later, MS/CCC sued Leonard for malpractice in New York state court based on settlement advice given during the earlier government litigation, prompting Leonard to seek a federal declaration that this malpractice claim was barred as an unraised compulsory counterclaim from the fee action.
Whether, if an attorney files an action against a client for nonpayment of fees for services performed, the client's known malpractice claim against the attorney for the same services is a compulsory counterclaim under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 13(a).