Talmer Bank & Trust v. Jacobsen

*173¶ 1 The third-party litigation exception to the American Rule allows a plaintiff to recover attorney fees incurred in third-party litigation *174caused by a wrongful act of the defendant. The question in this case is whether a breach of contract leading to third-party litigation is a wrongful act. We hold that a breach of contract can be a wrongful act under the third-party litigation exception to the American Rule. The attorneys' fees in this case are rightly considered part of the damages flowing from the defendants' breach of contract, and are therefore recoverable. We reverse the circuit…