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Jarosz v. Palmer8/11/2000
Middlesex.
May 8, 2000.
Practice, Civil, Judgment on the pleadings. Evidence, Judicial notice. Judgment, Preclusive effect. Attorney at Law, Attorney-client relationship.
Civil action commenced in the Superior Court Department on July 11, 1997.
The case was heard by Isaac Borenstein, J., on a motion for judgment on the pleadings.
The principal issue in this case is whether the plaintiff's action against the defendants for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, legal malpractice, and violation of G. L. c. 93A, based upon allegations that the defendants mishandled his legal affairs in the formation of two corporations in which he was a minority stockholder, is barred by the principles of issue preclusion. In a related Superior Court action in which the plaintiff had sued the two corporations for wrongful termination of his employment and its majority stockholders for breach of fiduciary duty, the plaintiff had sought to disqualify the defendants from representing the corporations and the majority stockholders on the ground that the defendants had acted as his attorneys in forming the two corporations to acquire a business known as Union Products. A Superior Court judge ruled that the defendants had not acted as the plaintiff's attorneys in that matter and denied the motion to disqualify. After taking judicial notice of this ruling and the court records of the related action brought by the plaintiff against the corporations and majority stockholders, the Superior Court judge in this action allowed the defendants' motion for judgment on the pleadings on the ground that the judge's ruling on the motion to disqualify precluded the plaintiff from relitigating the issue of an attorney-client relationship between the parties. On appeal, the plaintiff argues that the motion judge erred in considering matters outside the pleadings in deciding the motion for judgment on the pleadings and in entering judgment for the defendants on the ground of issue preclusion. We address both issues.
1. Motion for judgment on the pleadings.
Subsequent to the filing of the defendants' original answer in this case, the defendants sought and obtained permission to amend their answer to incorporate issue preclusion as a defense based upon the ruling made by the judge in the plaintiff's action against the corporations and majority stockholders that no attorney-client relationship existed between the plaintiff and the defendants . The defendants then filed a motion for judgment on the pleadings to which they attached the judge's decision on the motion to disqualify. The plaintiff argues that once the judge considered matters outside the pleadings, the motion should have been treated as one for summary judgment entitling him to notice and an opportunity to present further material to the court. Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(c), 365 Mass. 756 (1974). We perceive no error.
It was not necessary to treat the motion as one for summary judgment. A motion for judgment on the pleadings tests the legal sufficiency of the complaint. Sampson v. Lynn, 405 Mass. 29, 30 (1989). In considering the defendants' motion, the judge could properly take into consideration facts of which judicial notice may be taken. See Jackson v. Longcope, 394 Mass. 577, 580 n.2 (1985) ("It seems reasonable to take judicial notice of facts when considering a motion to dismiss under Mass.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(6)"). Here, the judge could properly take judicial notice of the court's own records in a related action. See Brookline v. Goldstein, 388 Mass. 443, 447 n.5 (1983). While the judge was required to accept as true all well-pleaded allegations of the plaintiff's complaint, Sampson v. Lynn, 40
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