Courtney Guerra, as Personal Representative of the Estate of James Francis Goard v. Robert Nesbitt and John Wallace

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed summary judgment for the attorney who represented the estate’s former personal representative. The estate waived its malpractice challenge by failing to brief it, and it failed to present evidence showing that the attorney owed the beneficiary a duty of care for the alleged fiduciary breaches. The court concluded that the beneficiary could reasonably protect her own rights and that the attorney did not know or have reason to know about the later withdrawals from the estate account.