Paul K. Sitton v. Hal H. Clements, Jr.

This is a suit for breach of contract filed under federal diversity jurisdiction. 28 U.S.C. § 1332 (1964). Plaintiff Sit- ton, a resident of North Carolina, sued defendant Clements, a Tennessee lawyer, for failing to file a personal injury action for Sitton before it was barred by the statute of limitations.

Background facts show that in the course of an altercation on December 4, 1959, one John E. Fuller, a representative of the Sheet Metal Workers Union, shot plaintiff Sitton. The bullet lodged in Sitton’s spine, rendering him a paraplegic. Sitton employed Clements as an attorney to…