Law360, New York – The former majority shareholder of defunct security technology company IdentiPHI Inc. won a $1.29 million jury verdict Thursday against DLA Piper, whose allegedly negligent advice on a bridge loan to the company left him with an unsecured claim and little hope of recovery in IdentiPHI’s subsequent bankruptcy.
A jury in Austin, Texas, found DLA Piper 90 percent responsible for plaintiff Chris Linegar’s loss of about $1.7 million he had loaned to IdentiPHI from his personal accounts. Though Linegar had requested that the loan be secured, he said, DLA Piper failed to perfect the security interest in the loan, leaving him with a large unsecured claim in the 2009 Chapter 11 proceedings.
Linegar, an Australian citizen, sued DLA Piper and attorney Michael Hutchings in 2010, alleging fraud, professional negligence, breach of fiduciary duty, negligent misrepresentation and failure to warn, among other causes of action. He said the law firm failed to tell him that it only represented IdentiPHI and not Linegar personally… [Full article]