Parrillo v. Chalk

OPINION

FLANDERS, Justice.

As all schoolchildren learn, appearances can be deceiving. See, e.g., “The Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing,” in The Fables of Aesop 94 (Joseph Jacobs ed., 1902). But their absence in a lawsuit can be fatal to the finality of any settlement negotiated with a lawyer who neither entered an appearance nor became an attorney of record for one of the settling parties.

For the reasons that follow, we hold that when attempting to resolve a lawsuit with an attorney purporting to represent the plaintiff, a defendant is not entitled to rely on any settlement authority claimed by such an…