By SAMUEL LOPEZ
USA HERALD — August 24, 2025

A Philadelphia law office that tried to hold its malpractice insurer accountable for a $600,000 jury verdict has hit a wall. A Pennsylvania federal judge ruled the “firm” that brought the lawsuit wasn’t actually a legal entity, and even if the individual attorneys had standing, their claims were sunk by a conversion exclusion in the insurance policy.

U.S. District Judge John F. Murphy granted summary judgment to Allied World Specialty Insurance Co. on Thursday, closing out litigation that plaintiffs had already discontinued weeks earlier.

The judge’s memorandum leaves no doubt: “Despite plaintiffs’ claim that the ‘precise form of business entity is not germane here,’ we must identify the applicable form of business entity to determine its existence.” He pointed out that plaintiffs themselves admitted that D’Angelo & Eurell “is not a partnership under Pennsylvania law but is an unincorporated association,” which state law defines as an “unincorporated association conducting any business or engaging in any activity of any nature whether for profit or otherwise under a common name.” 

That was a fatal problem. The court concluded that D’Angelo & Eurell—at least as styled—was not a true legal entity and could not sue. The only ones who technically had standing were the individual lawyers, David D’Angelo and his late brother George D’Angelo. But their case fell apart anyway because of the way the policy was written. Judge Murphy wrote: “Plaintiffs failed to adduce any evidence that Markley’s malpractice claim against George D’Angelo was not related to misappropriation or conversion.” That meant the insurer could rely on its exclusion for claims tied to conversion or misappropriation of funds. 

The backdrop is a 2013 malpractice suit brought by former client Lisa Markley in Dauphin County. She accused the D’Angelos of “wrongful acts,” which eventually led to a jury finding George D’Angelo liable for breach of professional duty, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, and breach of contract. The jury awarded Markley $600,000. George D’Angelo died before trial, but the liability carried forward. 

The plaintiffs tried to argue that the firm’s name carried legal weight because the brothers shared office space, letterhead, malpractice insurance, sometimes worked cases together, and even shared a trust account. But Judge Murphy dismissed those as “somewhat halfhearted details” that were outweighed by plaintiffs’ “repeated assertions that D’Angelo & Eurell was not an entity.” 

The ruling makes clear two points that lawyers and insureds ignore at their peril. First, a trade name isn’t a substitute for an actual legal entity; if you want the benefits of suing as a firm, you have to properly form one. Second, malpractice insurers draft conversion exclusions broadly, and courts will enforce them when client funds or misappropriation claims are involved. Plaintiffs must show evidence that the underlying claim isn’t tethered to conversion. Here, Judge Murphy emphasized, they simply didn’t.

The case is D’Angelo & Eurell et al. v. Allied World Specialty Insurance Co., No. 2:23-cv-00397, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.