In re: S&BSURGERY CENTER v. Buchalter Nemer, a California Professional Law; BENJAMIN S. SEIGEL

NOT FOR PUBLICATION
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT
In re: S&B SURGERY CENTER,
Debtor,
______________________________
LFMG-S&B, LLC, a California Limited
Liability Company,
Appellant,
v.
BUCHALTER NEMER, a California
Professional Law; BENJAMIN S.
SEIGEL,
Appellees.
No. 16-55879
D.C. No. 2:15-cv-06964-CJC
MEMORANDUM*
Appeal from the United States District Court
for the Central District of California
Cormac J. Carney, District Judge, Presiding
Argued and Submitted November 13, 2017
Pasadena, California
FILED
DEC 21 2017
MOLLY C. DWYER, CLERK
U.S. COURT OF APPEALS
* This disposition is not appropriate for publication and is not precedent
except as provided by Ninth Circuit Rule 36-3.

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Before: KOZINSKI,** HAWKINS and PARKER,*** Circuit Judges.
1. In California, legal malpractice claims may be assigned only under
narrow circumstances. See White Mountains Reinsurance Co. of Am. v. Borton
Petrini, LLP, 221 Cal. App. 4th 890, 892 (2013). LFMG’s acquisition didn’t
include other “assets, rights, obligations, [or] liabilities,” so the malpractice claim
wasn’t assigned as an “incidental part of a larger commercial transfer.” Id. The
transfer was also functionally “analogous to the assignment of a bare [malpractice]
cause of action” because the claims against Fortress were time-barred. Id. at 909.
The original client was not an insurance company. Id. at 892. Nor did Buchalter
and the Trust communicate through third parties. Id. The assignment here comes
nowhere close to satisfying the White Mountains test.
2. The district court didn’t err in affirming the bankruptcy court’s refusal to
grant leave to amend. Even if LFMG were a third-party beneficiary, the statute of
limitations would have run on the malpractice claim. See Cal. Code Civ. Proc. §
340.6(a).
** Prior to his retirement, Judge Kozinski fully participated in this case and
concurred in this disposition after deliberations were complete.
*** The Honorable Barrington D. Parker, Jr., United States Circuit Judge for
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, sitting by designation.

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AFFIRMED.

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