May 2nd, 2011
Plaintiffs appeal from the circuit court's order dismissing their action for damages against their former counsel whom they allege settled a case in which they were the named defendants without their consent. Plaintiffs assert that the circuit court failed to perceive the difference between actual and apparent authority and that collateral estoppel does not preclude them from establishing that their counsel was never authorized to do what he did and that they were damaged as a result, even though the settlement was upheld in Messer v. Huntington Anesthesia Group, Inc., 222 W.Va. 410, 664 S.E.2d 751 (2008).
