Gildea v. Guardian Title Co. of Utah

In Gildea v. Guardian Title Co. of Utah, 970 P.2d 1265 (Utah 1998), the Court affirmed the trial court's summary judgment ruling that dismissed the plaintiff's tort claims against various defendants. Id. at 1272. Among those claims, was an accusation that one of the defendants had breached its duty of confidentiality to the plaintiff by allowing an attorney to view a confidential file related to the plaintiff. Id. at 1269-70. The Court concluded the defendant had no fiduciary duties to the plaintiff and further determined that, even if such duties existed, the plaintiff had presented no evidence at all that the defendant had breached its duty of confidentiality. Id. at 1270. The only evidence before the trial court was that the attorney had never, in fact, seen the relevant file. Id. While the attorney had used information that was in the file, he testified he had gained the information from another source, and the plaintiff did not contest that testimony. Id. Based on these facts we concluded that "without any evidence that the defendant communicated confidential information, the plaintiff's contention is pure speculation and conjecture which cannot be allowed to form the basis of a jury's verdict." Id.