Some claims against Chris Bell, Annette M. Henry and their former firm are back on track

A former client’s breach-of-fiduciary duty claims against R. Christopher Bell, the 2006 Democratic gubernatorial nominee and a former U.S. congressman; Annette M. Henry; and their former firm, Bell & Henry in Houston, can go to trial. In a June 24 decision, the 14th Court of Appeals held in Trousdale v. Henry, et al. that Lenieta Wylene Trousdale’s breach-of-fiduciary duty claims against the two attorneys and the firm were timely filed and are separate from her time-barred legal malpractice claims against all three defendants. The 129th District Court in Houston had granted summary judgment to Henry, Bell and the firm and dismissed Trousdale’s malpractice and breach-of-fiduciary duty claims. In a 2-1 decision, the 14th Court concluded that the trial court erred in applying the two-year statute of limitations to Trousdale’s breach-of-fiduciary duty claims, which include her claim that the defendants allegedly failed to tell her that her probate case and a separate fraud-and-conversion suit had been dismissed even though they continued to demand payment from her. The divided 14th Court panel affirmed the trial court’s order dismissing Trousdale’s malpractice claim but reversed the portion of the order dismissing the breach-of-fiduciary duty claims, which are controlled by a four-year statute of limitations. Justice Leslie Brock Yates joined Justice Wanda McKee Fowler in the majority opinion. Justice Eva Guzman wrote in her concurring and dissenting opinion that she would hold all of Trousdale’s claims are time-barred. According to Guzman’s opinion, Trousdale’s breach of fiduciary duty claims are not separate from her legal malpractice claim. Bell, now of counsel at Patton Boggs in Dallas, says he had no involvement in Trousdale’s cases, except to sign the pleadings.  “I have always felt like it was a completely frivolous case, based on what my former partner has told me,” Bell says of Trousdale’s suit against Henry and him. Henry, a Houston solo, says Trousdale’s breach of fiduciary duty allegations are false and that the alleged acts about which Trousdale complains occurred after the dissolution of Bell & Henry in 1999.  Trousdale filed suit Dec. 30, 2005, when Bell already was running for governor, Henry says.
-- Mary Alice Robbins