Shook v. Lynch & Howard, P.A.

Plaintiff appeals an order granting defendants' motion for summary judgment. Initially, plaintiff assigned as error multiple orders, including: (1) the denial of plaintiff's motion for findings of fact, (2) the granting of defendants' motions to amend, and (3) the granting of defendants' motions for summary judgment and judgment on the pleadings. Plaintiff's sole argument on appeal concerns the granting of defendants' motion for summary judgment; thus, pursuant to Rule 10 of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure (1999), all other assignments of error are deemedabandoned. We affirm.

In her complaint, Dana E. Shook ("plaintiff") alleged that she hired Lynch & Howard and their employees ("L & H") in May 1996 to prepare "business valuations" on her husband's companies. At the time, plaintiff was in the process of obtaining a divorce from her husband, Michael G. Shook, and needed assistance valuing his financial holdings for equitable distribution proceedings. Defendants Thomas M. Miller, Maylon E. Little, and Homer G. Duncan, Jr. are accountants who worked at L & H and participated in preparing reports on the businesses. According to plaintiff, she rejected an equitable distribution settlement offer from her husband, because she relied on defendants' evaluations, which she contends were incorrect. Plaintiff and her husband settled "all matters in controversy" and entered a consent judgment resolving all equitable distribution issues on 27 May 1998.

After the entry of the Judgment of Equitable Distribution, plaintiff initiated this lawsuit against defendants. In her Amended Complaint, plaintiff alleged that:

22. As a direct and proximate result of the defendants' supplying the plaintiff with erroneous information and advice, the plaintiff was caused to suffer substantial compensatory injury and damage, including but not limited to the following: substantial handicap and detriment in the plaintiff's efforts to negotiate a settlement of the equitable distribution property dispute between the plaintiff and Mr. Shook; headache, nervous stomach, bodily illness, embarrassment, humiliation; severe mental and emotional distress; and loss of the economic benefit of a more favorable settlement offer because the defendants' erroneous accounting information and advice misled her to consider Mr. Shook's initial settlement proposal to be unreasonable when [] she would have evaluated said settlement proposal differently had she received the accurate and competent accounting advice to which she was entitled and for which she paid.

As a direct and proximate result of the defendants' wanton, multiple and gross negligent acts and omissions (and the defendants' wanton failure to timely recognize and correct such), the plaintiff has suffered compensatory damages in an amount substantially in excess of Ten Thousand Dollars ($10,000) . . . .

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Affirmed for Defendants.

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C.L.