Attorney Malpractice: Tenerowicz v. Kiriazis

Sommers Schwartz attorneys Matthew Turner and David Black filed a legal malpractice lawsuit on behalf of a woman involved in a contentious dispute over her late father’s estate.Over the years, Diane Tenerowicz and her father had consulted attorney Ted Kiriazis on many legal matters related to family businesses, estate planning, real property, tax preparation, and contested litigation. Mr. Kiriazis acted as her personal attorney on numerous matters. After her father’s death, Mr. Kiriazis informed her that a provision in her father’s trust required her to take certain actions that were very personal in nature. If she did not take these actions within sixty days of her father’s death, she would lose her share of his estate. Ms. Tenerowicz was shocked and distraught and looked to Mr. Kiriazis for advice.

Mr. Kiriazis, in a position of authority, advised Ms. Tenerowicz to take no action during the crucial sixty-day period and that he would be taking action as the trustee to modify the trust. He warned her that seeking a second opinion could result in losing her share under another provision of the trust.  This advice, as events later showed, had severe consequences.

Mr. Kiriazis did not file his petition to modify the trust until well after the sixty-day period had expired. The petition was denied. The Probate Court declared Ms. Tenerowicz’s share forfeited, and the Michigan Court of Appeals affirmed the decision. Both courts noted that Ms. Tenerowicz did not take the action required by the trust on the advice of Mr. Kiriazis.

The complaint alleges Mr. Kiriazis breached his fiduciary duty as the trustee and that he failed to live up to the required professional standard of care required of him as an attorney when he provided legal advice to Ms. Tenerowicz when they discussed the trust. Ms. Tenerowicz asks for compensation equivalent to her share of the trust – $1.2 million – along with damages from losing use of those funds and attorney’s fees.