Viner v. Sweet

The Viners (plaintiffs) retained attorney Charles Sweet and his firm (defendant) to represent them in selling their company, Dove Audio, to Media Equities International; after the sale, the Viners sued Sweet for malpractice on seven counts of negligence, and a jury awarded them damages. Sweet argued on appeal that the traditional but-for causation standard required the Viners to prove his negligence was the only reason they didn't get a better deal or walk away entirely, while the Viners argued a different causation standard should apply to transactional malpractice because proving but-for causation would require impractical testimony from adversarial deal parties. The court of appeals rejected Sweet's arguments and largely upheld the jury's award; Sweet petitioned for review.