Plaintiff won contract/tort claims arising from loans made to a deceased person brokered by an unlicensed broker who happened to be a trustee of the deceased person’s trust. The win included defeating a usury counterclaim brought by the estate. The lower court then found that plaintiff was entitled to attorney’s fees as additional damages against broker under the “tort of another” doctrine.
Broker claimed on appeal that the doctrine was an “exceptional one” that should not apply under the circumstances.
Wrong, said the appellate panel in Gates v. Courneen, Case No. H038069 (6th Dist. Mar. 18, 2013) (unpublished). Although it is true that the doctrine should not be applied indiscriminately, this was hardly that type of situation: after all, plaintiff did have to expose broker’s conduct/unlicensed status in order to defeat the usury counterclaim, which squarely fit into the rationale behind the “tort of another” doctrine.
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