(Texas Lawyer) - In a suit filed in Harris County on Friday, a probate court executor also alleges Houston lawyer Frank Holcomb was negligent for failing to draft enforceable postnuptial agreements that affected the value of his client's estate.
What You Need to Know
- Executor of a woman's estate seeks more than $1 million in the suit filed against Greg Enos of Webster and Frank Holcomb of Houston.
- He alleged Enos, who writes The Mongoose newsletter about judges, gave him faulty advice on a statute of limitations.
- He also alleges Holcomb was negligent in preparing postnuptial agreements that were not enforceable.
Webster family law attorney Greg Enos, known in Southeast Texas for authoring The Mongoose newsletter about judges and family law, was hit with a negligence lawsuit alleging he gave bad advice to a probate executor about potential legal malpractice claims against another lawyer.
The executor seeks more than $1 million in damages from the defendants—Enos and Enos Law Firm, and from Houston lawyer Frank H. Holcomb and Frank H. Holcomb P.C.
In a petition filed in state district court in Harris County on Friday, executor Greg Schenck alleged that Enos gave him faulty advice about the statute of limitations for potential legal malpractice claims against Holcomb.
Enos did not immediately return a telephone message left at his office. Holcomb declined to comment on the allegations because he had not read the petition.
As alleged in the petition in Schenck v. Holcomb, Janet King hired Holcomb in 1983 to draft a prenuptial agreement to protect her separate property rights before her marriage to Ed King. Holcomb drafted a postnuptial agreement in May 1984, another in December 1984, and a third in 2001. Also, according to the petition, Holcomb prepared spreadsheets listing each party’s separate property that purported to supplement the 2001 postnuptial agreement.
In 2018, Janet King filed a petition for declaratory judgment to ensure that transfers to her children from a previous marriage were made from her separate property as described in the spreadsheets. Enos represented her in that petition.
Ed King answered and filed a counterclaim seeking a declaration that none of the agreements drafted by Holcomb were enforceable.
On March 1, 2019, Ed King filed a petition for divorce, however he died Aug. 30, 2019, and Janet King died Jan. 29, 2021, before the litigation was resolved, so it was transferred to probate court. Enos represented Schenck, who was executor of Janet King’s estate.
Schenck alleged in the petition that Enos advised him that Ed King’s arguments about the enforceability of the prenuptial agreement drafted by Holcomb had merit, and that Janet King’s estate had a potential legal malpractice claim against Holcomb.
“Moreover, Enos advised Schenck that the statute of limitation on any cause of action against Holcomb based on that legal malpractice was tolled until the divorce litigation was finally resolved,” Schenck alleged in the petition.
He alleges that he did not revisit the potential malpractice claims until after the divorce and probate litigation was resolved, and he was informed for the first time in March 2021 that the statute of limitations was in fact not tolled, and it had already expired.
In bringing the negligence cause of action against Holcomb, the executor alleged that the lawyer failed to draft agreements that were enforceable, costing Janet King’s estate about $2 million when separate and community claims were settled.
As to the negligence claim against Enos, Schenck claims that Enos and his firm failed to give him accurate or timely advice on the statute of limitations, and Janet King’s estate suffered damages.
Plaintiff’s attorney Brett Wagner, of Doherty Wagner in Houston, did not immediately return a telephone message seeking comment.
According to Enos Law Firm’s website, Enos writes The Mongoose newsletter for lawyers and judges in the Houston and Galveston areas, and it “points out ways judges are not following the law or acting ethically,” and includes news for family law attorneys. According to an online archive, the most recent The Mongoose was posted in November 2020.
