Bewley v. Semler ( 2018 )

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ADVANCE SHEET HEADNOTE
September 24, 2018
2018 CO 79No. 16SC849, Bewley v. Semler—Strict Privity—Standing—Pleading.
In this case, the supreme court considers whether the strict privity rule bars claims
against attorneys by non-clients absent a showing of fraud, malicious conduct, or
negligent misrepresentation. We hold that, absent any wrongdoing, the strict privity rule
does bar claims against attorneys by non-clients because holding otherwise may force
attorneys to place non-clients’ interests ahead of clients’ interests. Because Semler did
not allege any fraud, malicious conduct, or negligent misrepresentation, he lacks
standing to assert a breach-of-contract claim.
The Supreme Court of the State of Colorado
2 East 14th Avenue • Denver, Colorado 80203
2018 CO 79Supreme Court Case No. 16SC849
Certiorari to the Colorado Court of Appeals
Court of Appeals Case No. 15CA206
Petitioners:
Charles Bewley and Berenbaum Weinshienk P.C.,
v.
Respondent:
R. Parker Semler.
Judgment Reversed
en banc
September 24, 2018
Attorneys for Petitioners:
Wheeler Trigg O’Donnell LLP
Carolyn J. Fairless
Rebecca Graves Payne
Denver, Colorado
Attorneys for Respondent:
Semler & Associates P.C.
R. Parker Semler
Andrew Oh-Willeke
Jeremy Goldblatt
Denver, Colorado
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Colorado Bar Association:
Montgomery Little & Soran, P.C.
Christopher B. Little
Erin C. Nave
Christopher T. Carry
Greenwood Village, Colorado
Attorneys for Amicus Curiae Colorado Civil Justice League:
Taylor Anderson LLP
Lee Mickus
Denver, Colorado
JUSTICE BOATRIGHT delivered the Opinion of the Court.
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¶1 R. Parker Semler, a member of a condominium association, filed a breach-of-
contract claim against the law firm that employed the association’s attorney. In support
of that claim, he alleged that the attorney had a contract with the association’s president
not to represent one association member against another. He also alleged that the
attorney had, on behalf of other association members he was representing, acquired a
deed conveying ownership of parking spaces over which Semler also claimed ownership,
thereby breaching the contract and damaging Semler.
¶2 The trial court dismissed the claim for lack of standing. A division of the court of
appeals reversed, concluding that Semler had sufficiently alleged a breach-of-contract
claim as a third-party beneficiary. In doing so, the division concluded that the strict
privity rule, which “precludes attorney liability to non-clients absent fraud, malicious
conduct, or negligent misrepresentation,” Baker v. Wood, Ris & Hames, P.C., 2016 CO 5,
¶ 1, 364 P.3d 872, 874, did not bar Semler’s claim.
¶3 We granted certiorari and now reverse. We conclude that the strict privity rule
bars Semler’s breach-of-contract claim, meaning he lacks standing to assert it.
I. Facts and Procedural History1
¶4 This litigation began as a dispute over the ownership of three parking spaces at a
condominium in downtown Denver. Semler, a member of the 1940 Blake Street
1We take the factual allegations underlying this litigation from Semler’s complaint,
amended complaint, and proposed second amended complaint.
3
Condominium Association (“the Association”), acquired an ownership interest in two of
those parking spaces years ago. More recently, Perfect Place LLC, also an Association
member, claimed that it had acquired a quitclaim deed that conveyed an ownership
interest in those same two parking spaces, as well as a third.
¶5 To settle the competing claims to ownership, Perfect Place filed a quiet-title action,
asking the trial court to declare it the rightful owner of the parking spaces.2 Semler
countered that he is the rightful owner of the parking spaces and that Perfect Place had
wrongfully acquired the quitclaim deed.
¶6 While that litigation was ongoing, Semler initiated a second action asserting
various claims against (as relevant here) the following four defendants: (1) Perfect Place;
(2) Bruce S. Hellerstein, Perfect Place’s principal and the Association’s treasurer; (3) Bruce
S. Hellerstein CPA, P.C., Hellerstein’s accounting firm; and (4) Charles Bewley, an
attorney who served as counsel to the Association and helped Perfect Place acquire the
quitclaim deed at Hellerstein’s direction (but did not represent Perfect Place in the quiet-
title action). Semler alleged that those defendants had conspired to “seize” all rights in
the parking spaces, that in doing so Hellerstein had breached his fiduciary duty to the
Association’s members, and that the other three defendants had aided and abetted
2This case is more fully described in Perfect Place v. Semler, 2018 CO 74, __ P.3d __,
announced on September 17, 2018.
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Hellerstein’s breach. Semler later amended his complaint to add as a defendant the law
firm Berenbaum Weinshienk P.C., which was Bewley’s employer at all relevant times.
¶7 Facing motions to dismiss for failure to state a claim under C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5),
Semler moved for leave to file a second amended complaint. His proposed second
amended complaint alleged that Bewley had fraudulently acquired the quitclaim deed
on Hellerstein and Perfect Place’s behalf, and it added fraud-based claims against Bewley
and Hellerstein. It also asserted a number of claims against Berenbaum Weinshienk,
including one for breach of contract, the claim at issue here. In support of that claim, the
proposed second amended complaint alleged that the Association’s president had
“instructed” Bewley that neither he nor Berenbaum Weinshienk was to represent the
Association against any of its members or to represent one member against another.
Moreover, it alleged that (1) Bewley agreed to those terms on behalf of himself and
Berenbaum Weinshienk; (2) Semler, as a member of the Association, was an intended
third-party beneficiary of that agreement; and (3) Berenbaum Weinshienk breached the
agreement by representing Perfect Place in its acquisition of the quitclaim deed, thereby
“forc[ing Semler] to litigate his rightful claim to ownership of [the parking spaces]” and
causing him to “suffer[] a tangible economic loss to his legally protected interests,
including lost opportunity damages.”
¶8 The trial court issued an order addressing both the defendants’ motions to dismiss
and Semler’s motion to file a second amended complaint. The court reasoned that the
person whom Perfect Place acquired the quitclaim deed from—not Semler—was “the
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victim of [any] fraud” that occurred, and Semler therefore lacked standing to sue. The
court thus denied Semler’s motion for leave to file a second amended complaint and
granted the motions to dismiss. The court also ordered that Semler pay the defendants’
attorney’s fees and costs.
¶9 Semler appealed. Before the court of appeals division heard oral arguments,
however, this court issued two opinions that bear on the case. In Baker, we reaffirmed
the “strict privity rule,” i.e., that an attorney’s liability to a non-client “is generally limited
to the narrow set of circumstances in which the attorney has committed fraud or a
malicious or tortious act, including negligent misrepresentation.” ¶ 2, 364 P.3d at 874.
And in Warne v. Hall, 2016 CO 50, ¶ 24, 373 P.3d 588, 595, we adopted the “plausible on
its face” pleading standard, as articulated by the U.S. Supreme Court in Bell Atlantic
Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), and Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 U.S. 662 (2009). The
division directed the parties to address at oral arguments whether the holding in Warne
applies retroactively.
¶10 The division ultimately did not decide that question. Instead, it affirmed the
dismissal of all but one of Semler’s claims. Semler’s fraud-based claims, the division
concluded, were properly dismissed for failure to state a claim under C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5)
because Semler’s connection to any fraudulent conduct was too attenuated. Semler
v. Hellerstein, 2016 COA 143, ¶¶ 18–22, __ P.3d __. But the division reasoned that because
“Semler’s remaining claims assert conduct against him directly, the trial court’s reasoning
for dismissal based on lack of standing does not apply.” Id. at ¶ 23. So the division
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reviewed those claims under C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5). Id. It concluded that, under either
Warne’s “plausible on its face” pleading standard or the more lenient, pre-Warne “no set
of facts” pleading standard, all but one of those claims failed to state a claim. Id. at ¶ 26.
When the division analyzed Semler’s sole surviving claim—his claim for breach of
contract against Berenbaum Weinshienk—it did not specify which standard of review it
was applying.3 Rather, it recounted the allegations from Semler’s second amended
complaint and then declared that the Association president’s “instruction” to Berenbaum
Weinshienk created “a contract of which Semler was an intended beneficiary.” Id. at ¶
51.
¶11 The division then concluded that Baker does not bar Semler’s contract claim
against Berenbaum Weinshienk. Id. at ¶ 54–55. In Baker, we rejected as inconsistent with
the strict privity rule the argument that beneficiaries of a testator’s estate had standing to
assert legal-malpractice or breach-of-contract claims against the attorneys who drafted
the testator’s estate-planning documents. ¶¶ 1–2, 364 P.3d at 874. The division here
reasoned that Semler had not alleged that the breach of contract resulted from the quality
of Bewley’s legal representation; he had instead alleged that Bewley’s representation of
Perfect Place in its acquisition of title to the parking spaces breached Bewley’s contract
3 Before the division addressed the claims that it concluded had been properly dismissed,
it stated that it “do[es] not apply the Warne standard.” Semler, ¶ 26 n.3. But it never
clarified which standard of review it was applying when it later analyzed Semler’s
breach-of-contract claim.
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with the Association not to represent one member against another. Semler, ¶ 55. The
division found that difference to “undercut[] the policy considerations identified in Baker
as supporting the strict privity rule.” Id. Thus, the division concluded that Semler had
sufficiently pleaded a breach-of-contract claim under a third-party beneficiary theory of
liability. Id. at ¶ 56.
¶12 The division therefore reversed the trial court’s order awarding attorney’s fees to
Berenbaum Weinshienk and Bewley,4 id. at ¶ 59, and remanded the case to the trial court
for further proceedings on the sole surviving claim for breach of contract against
Berenbaum Weinshienk, id. at ¶ 63.
¶13 We granted certiorari to determine whether the division (1) erred in concluding
that Baker did not deprive Semler of standing to assert his breach-of-contract claim, and
(2) failed to properly apply Warne.5
4 Semler had alleged his breach-of-contract claim only against Berenbaum Weinshienk;
the division did not explain why it reversed the trial court’s award of attorney’s fees to
Bewley as well.
5 Specifically, we granted certiorari to review the following issues:
1. [REFRAMED] Whether the court of appeals’ ruling, that a non-client
condominium association member has standing to sue the association’s
former attorneys under a third-party beneficiary theory of liability,
misconstrued this court’s holding in Baker v. Wood, Ris & Hames, P.C.,
2016 CO 5, 364 P.3d 872.
2. Whether the court of appeals’ application of “the prior and more lenient
‘no set of facts’ standard,” to conclude that Plaintiff-Respondent’s
breach of contract claim survived a C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5) motion to dismiss,
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II. Standard of Review
¶14 We review a trial court’s ruling on a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim
under C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5) de novo. Norton v. Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood, Inc.,
2018 CO 3, ¶ 7, 409 P.3d 331, 334. In doing so, we accept all factual allegations in the
complaint as true, viewing them in a light most favorable to the plaintiff. Id. Dismissal
under C.R.C.P. 12(b)(5) is proper only “where the factual allegations in the complaint
cannot, as a matter of law, support the claim for relief.” Colo. Ethics Watch v. Senate
Majority Fund, LLC, 2012 CO 12, ¶ 16, 269 P.3d 1248, 1253.
III. Analysis
¶15 We begin by explaining the third-party beneficiary exception to privity of contract
and the strict privity rule for malpractice claims brought against an attorney by a non-
client. Next, we apply that law to Semler’s breach-of-contract claim. We conclude that
the strict privity rule bars Semler’s breach-of-contract claim, meaning he lacks standing
to assert it. Because Semler cannot bring his claim under any pleading standard, we need
not resolve whether the division below failed to properly apply Warne.
A. Law
¶16 Generally, only parties to a contract may seek to enforce its terms. See Forest City
Stapleton Inc. v. Rogers, 2017 CO 23, ¶ 11, 393 P.3d 487, 490. In other words, a party must
contravenes this court’s ruling in Warne v. Hall, 2016 CO 50, 373 P.3d
588, which adopted the “plausible on its face” standard.
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have privity of contract to sue for breach of that contract. See Privity, Black’s Law
Dictionary (10th ed. 2014).
¶17 One exception to this requirement involves third-party beneficiaries to a contract.
In Colorado, a “person not a party to an express contract may bring an action on such
contract if the parties to the agreement intended to benefit the non-party, provided that
the benefit claimed is a direct and not merely an incidental benefit of the contract.” E.B.
Roberts Constr. Co. v. Concrete Contractors, Inc., 704 P.2d 859, 865 (Colo. 1985). That is,
a third-party beneficiary to a contract may generally sue to enforce its terms.
¶18 But third-party beneficiary claims against attorneys are treated differently. “The
common-law rule is that an attorney is not responsible for an injury to a third person
arising out of the representation.” 1 Ronald E. Mallen, Legal Malpractice § 6:1 (2018 ed.).
Indeed, we have recognized that the attorney-client relationship is a fiduciary
relationship in which “an attorney’s obligation is generally to his or her client and not to
a third party.” Baker, ¶ 20, 364 P.3d at 876–77. For that reason, we adhere to “the ‘strict
privity rule,’ which precludes attorney liability to non-clients absent fraud, malicious
conduct, or negligent misrepresentation.” Id. at ¶ 1, 364 P.3d at 874. This rule “protects
the sanctity of and duties and protections inherent in the attorney-client relationship.”
Id. at ¶ 35, 364 P.3d at 879. It also “strikes the appropriate balance between [clients’
interests], on the one hand, and non-clients claiming to be injured by an attorney’s
conduct, on the other.” Id.10
¶19 We most recently examined the strict privity rule in Baker. There, the beneficiaries
of a testator’s estate alleged that the attorneys who represented the testator had failed to
properly advise him, thereby frustrating his intent to treat the intended beneficiaries
equally. Id. at ¶ 11, 364 P.3d at 875. The beneficiaries sued the attorneys, asserting claims
for breach of contract (as third-party beneficiaries) and professional negligence. Id. The
district court dismissed these claims, and the court of appeals affirmed. Id. at ¶¶ 13, 15,
364 P.3d at 875, 876.
¶20 In affirming the court of appeals, we concluded that the beneficiaries lacked
standing to pursue a claim for professional malpractice against the attorneys based on
either a breach-of-contract or a professional-negligence theory. Id. at ¶¶ 1–2, 364 P.3d at
874. In doing so, we reaffirmed our adherence to the strict privity rule, explaining that
“an attorney’s liability [to non-clients] is generally limited to the narrow set of
circumstances in which the attorney has committed fraud or a malicious or tortious act,
including negligent misrepresentation.” Id. at ¶ 2, 364 P.3d at 874. And we expressly
declined the beneficiaries’ invitation to abandon the strict privity rule in favor of a rule
that would allow them to assert legal-malpractice and contract claims against the
attorneys despite the absence of privity. Id. at ¶ 18, 364 P.3d at 876. We recognized that,
in Colorado, “a person not a party to an express contract may bring an action on the
contract if the parties to the agreement intended to benefit the non-party, provided that
the benefit claimed is a direct and not merely incidental benefit of the contract.” Id. at ¶
45, 364 P.3d at 881. But we concluded that the beneficiaries’ proposed application of that
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rule in the context of an attorney-client relationship would be “contrary to each of the
settled policies underlying the strict privity rule to which Colorado courts have long
adhered.” Id. at ¶ 48, 364 P.3d at 882.
¶21 Our examination of caselaw revealed four such policies, three of which are
relevant here. “First, limiting an attorney’s liability to his or her clients protects the
attorney’s duty of loyalty to and effective advocacy for the client.” Id. at ¶ 23, 364 P.3d
at 877. The specter of negligence claims brought by non-clients, we reasoned, would
diminish an attorney’s ability to “act in his or her client’s best interest.” Id. “Second,
expanding attorney liability to non-clients could result in adversarial relationships
between an attorney and third parties and thus give rise to conflicting duties on the part
of the attorney.” Id. at ¶ 24, 364 P.3d at 877. And third, were liability to extend to third
parties, the attorney could “be liable to an unforeseeable and unlimited number of
people.” Id. at ¶ 26, 364 P.3d at 878. Expanded liability would deter representation in
certain matters, “compromising the interests of potential clients by making it more
difficult for them to obtain legal services” and risking the client’s loss of “control over his
or her contract for legal services.” Id. at ¶ 27, 364 P.3d at 878.6 At bottom, these policies
6The fourth policy, which relates more directly to Baker’s facts, is that extending liability
to non-clients would invite “suits by disappointed beneficiaries that would cast doubt on
the testator’s intentions long after the testator is deceased and unavailable to speak for
himself or herself.” Baker, ¶ 28, 364 P.3d at 878.
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reveal that the strict privity rule limits attorneys’ liability to non-clients in order to protect
the attorney-client relationship.
¶22 We therefore reached two important conclusions in Baker: (1) the beneficiaries
lacked standing to pursue a claim for professional malpractice against the attorneys
under breach-of-contract or professional-negligence theories, id. at ¶¶ 1–2, 364 P.3d at
874; and (2) the policies underlying the strict privity rule invalidated the beneficiaries’
proposal to allow legal-malpractice and contract claims against the attorneys, id. at ¶ 48,
364 P.3d at 882.
¶23 With these principles in mind, we now turn to the facts of this case.
B. Application
¶24 Semler’s proposed second amended complaint asserted a breach-of-contract claim
against Berenbaum Weinshienk. In support of that claim, the complaint alleged that the
Association’s president “instructed Bewley that neither he nor Berenbaum Weinshienk
was to represent” the Association against any member or to represent one member
against another. Bewley agreed to that instruction on behalf of himself and Berenbaum
Weinshienk. The complaint then asserted the legal conclusion that, because Bewley
provided legal services to Perfect Place at Hellerstein’s direction and with knowledge
that Semler was a member of the Association, Berenbaum Weinshienk “breached the
agreement.” Finally, the complaint asserted that the breach damaged Semler, who was
an intended third-party beneficiary of the agreement as an Association member. The
nature of those alleged damages was that Semler was “forced” to defend against the
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quiet-title action and “suffered a tangible economic loss to his legally protected interests,
including lost opportunity damages.”
¶25 The strict privity rule bars this claim. As we made clear in Baker, “an attorney’s
liability [to non-clients] is generally limited to the narrow set of circumstances in which
the attorney has committed fraud or a malicious or tortious act, including negligent
misrepresentation.” ¶ 2, 364 P.3d at 874. The allegations in Semler’s proposed second
amended complaint do not place this breach-of-contract claim within any of these
exceptions. Rather, taking those allegations as true, they establish only that (1) Bewley
and Berenbaum Weinshienk (collectively, “the Attorneys”) agreed not to represent one
member of the Association against another member, (2) the Attorneys “breached” that
agreement by representing Perfect Place in its acquisition of the quitclaim deed, and
(3) Semler—a third-party beneficiary to the agreement—suffered damages as a result.
Put differently, Semler alleges that, by performing work on behalf of their client, the
Attorneys breached a contract and damaged him. In Baker, however, we concluded that
non-clients lack standing to assert breach-of-contract claims against attorneys. ¶¶ 1–2,
364 P.3d at 874. And we expressly declined to extend the third-party beneficiary theory
of contract liability to allow claims brought by non-clients against attorneys, as doing so
would be contrary to the policies underlying the strict privity rule. Id. at ¶¶ 44, 48, 364
P.3d at 881, 882.
¶26 So too here. Limiting the Attorneys’ liability to their clients protects their “duty of
loyalty to and effective advocacy for the client[s]” with whom they have an attorney-
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client relationship. Id. at ¶ 23, 364 P.3d at 877. To extend their liability to the
Association’s members, by contrast, could force the Attorneys to weigh their clients’
interests against non-clients’ interests, see Noble v. Bruce, 709 A.2d 1264, 1270 (Md. 1998),
which might prevent them from acting in their clients’ best interest, see Baker, ¶ 23, 364
P.3d at 877. Doing so could likewise result in adversarial relationships between the
Attorneys and the Association’s members, creating conflicting duties that could constrain
the Attorneys’ ability to represent their clients. See id. at ¶ 24, 364 P.3d at 877. And
extended liability might deter the Attorneys from accepting certain legal matters, making
it more difficult for their clients to obtain the Attorneys’ services. See id. at ¶ 27, 364 P.3d
at 878. The policies underlying the strict privity rule therefore counsel against permitting
Semler’s breach-of-contract claim.
¶27 Semler nevertheless advances a number of arguments that the strict privity rule
and its underlying policy justifications do not compel this result. He first asserts that
Baker disapproved only breach-of-contract claims that allege professional malpractice or
depend on conflicts of interest, whereas his claim is merely a run-of-the-mill contract
claim in which the defendants happen to be attorneys. Not so. The strict privity rule, as
we defined it in Baker, is not as restricted as Semler contends; it “precludes attorney
liability to non-clients absent fraud, malicious conduct, or negligent misrepresentation.”
¶ 1, 364 P.3d at 874. Semler’s claim does not fit within any of those exceptions.
¶28 He next contends that courts have, for over 100 years, permitted non-clients to
assert non-tort claims against attorneys, and that Baker left that caselaw undisturbed.
15
The cases he cites, however, are distinguishable. In some, the attorney had a direct
business or contractual relationship with the non-client party, meaning they were in
privity. E.g., Accident & Injury Med. Specialists, P.C. v. Mintz, 2012 CO 50, ¶ 2, 279 P.3d
658, 659; Conyers v. Lee, 511 P.2d 506, 509 (Colo. App. 1973). In others, the non-client
sought an attorney’s money under a theory of restitution or conversion, unlike the
breach-of-contract claim that Semler asserts here. See, e.g., Coppock v. Helfer, 515 P.2d
488, 489–90 (Colo. App. 1973); Benson v. Eli, 66 P. 450, 451 (Colo. App. 1901). Notably,
none of the cases involved claims relating to the attorney-client relationship; that is, the
claims did “not interfere with any professional duties owed to a client” and were “not
premised on an assertion of a duty owed” to the non-client. Berger v. Dixon & Snow,
P.C., 868 P.2d 1149, 1153 (Colo. App. 1993).
¶29 Finally, Semler argues that the potential third-party beneficiaries of the
Association’s contract with the Attorneys were limited in number, and that the Attorneys’
duty of loyalty to their clients could not be impaired by the “valid and binding restriction
of practice agreement.” Answer Br. 22. We disagree. Although the Association here has
only a handful of members, to create a vague exception where potential third-party
beneficiaries are few in number would swallow the strict privity rule. And if the
Attorneys owed duties to any number of those potential third-party beneficiaries, those
duties could impair the Attorneys’ duty to their clients. Baker, ¶ 24, 364 P.3d at 877. In
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short, to permit liability to non-clients here could impair the Attorneys’ ability to
represent their clients.7
¶30 Because we conclude that the strict privity rule bars Semler’s breach-of-contract
claim, he lacks standing to assert that claim under either Warne’s “plausible on its face”
pleading standard or the “no set of facts” pleading standard. So we need not decide
whether the division below failed to properly apply Warne.
IV. Conclusion
¶31 For the reasons stated, we conclude that the strict privity rule bars Semler’s breach-
of-contract claim, meaning he lacks standing to assert it. We therefore reverse the
judgment of the court of appeals and remand the case to that court for further
proceedings.
7As an alternative argument, Semler contends that he should be granted leave to amend
his pleadings to reassert his tort claims against the Attorneys. We decline to address this
assertion. We denied Semler’s cross-petition to consider those claims, and we do not
address issues not included in the order granting certiorari. State v. Nieto, 993 P.2d 493,
505 (Colo. 2000).
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