Time-barred – Legal Malpractice Claim

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: Elizabeth G. Ruckelshaus v. Gerald L. Cowan, et al.,

Case No.: 19-2770

Officials: WOOD, Chief Judge, and BARRETT and SCUDDER, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Time-barred – Legal Malpractice Claim

Elizabeth Ruckelshaus appeals the district court’s determination that Indiana’s statute of limitations bars her legal malpractice claim. More than twenty years ago, she hired the defendants to help her and her brother, Thomas Ruckelshaus, access assets held in a trust that their father set up for their benefit. Ruckelshaus contends that she instructed the defendants to give her a future interest in her brother’s share, subject to a life estate held by his wife. And she insists that she could not have known that the defendants failed to follow her wishes until her brother and his widow died. But if there was an error, Ruckelshaus had ample opportunity to discover it when the trust was dissolved and the funds were disbursed, so any claim accrued then. Because the time for asserting this claim is long past, we affirm the district court’s judgment.

Affirmed

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Derek A Hawkins is trademark corporate counsel for Harley-Davidson. Hawkins oversees the prosecution and maintenance of the Harley-Davidson’s international trademark portfolio in emerging markets.