JOSEPH C. HOOPER, JR., Plaintiff, and GEORGE PARKER, Conservator of Joseph C. Hooper, Jr., Appellant, v. HILL LEWIS, f/k/a HILL, LEWIS, ADAMS, GOODRICH & TAIT, ROBERT L. HENRY, JR., and JOHN D. MABLEY, Defendants-Appellees, 191 Mich. App. 312

Summary

The client, who was also an attorney, hired the lawyers in June 1985 to represent him in litigation related to his parents' estates. In December 1985, a settlement agreement was reached in the probate action and was placed on the record. The following summer the lawyers tried to contact him to notify him of a hearing scheduled by the bank preparing the final accountings. They received a letter from him which, according to the trial court, effectively discharged the firm at that time. The lawyers later made a motion in the probate court to withdraw as counsel of record. That motion was granted in October 1986. The client sued them two years later. The trial court granted the lawyers summary disposition under the statute of limitations. The client argued either that they were not discharged until the probate court order or that the statute of limitations was tolled by his insanity. The trial court concluded that the lawyers discontinued serving him in June 1986 when he wrote the letter, ...