Bd. of Prof'l Responsibility v. Stinson

• Decision Date: 29 October 2014
• Docket Number: No. D–14–0002.,D–14–0002.
• Citation: 2014 WY 134,337 P.3d 401
• Parties: BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY, WYOMING STATE BAR, Petitioner, v. Laurence W. STINSON, WSB No. 62918, Respondent.
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

337 P.3d 401

2014 WY 134

BOARD OF PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY, WYOMING STATE BAR, Petitioner

v.Laurence W. STINSON, WSB No. 62918, Respondent.

No. D–14–0002.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

Oct. 29, 2014.

ORDER OF PUBLIC CENSURE

E. JAMES BURKE, Chief Justice.

[¶ 1] This matter comes before the Court upon a Report and Recommendation by the Board of Professional Responsibility of the Wyoming State Bar (the Board) for a public reprimand of Laurence W. Stinson. Having reviewed the Report and Recommendation and Mr. Stinson's objection to it, considered the oral arguments of counsel, and performed an independent and thorough review of the Board record, the Court concludes Mr. Stinson violated Rule 3.1(c) of the Wyoming Rules of Professional Conduct and accepts the recommendation of the Board that Mr. Stinson be publicly reprimanded and that he pay costs in the amount recommended by the Board. We further rule that the Board properly denied Mr. Stinson's motion for sanctions.

FACTS

[¶ 2] During the events which led to this disciplinary matter, Mr. Stinson was a shareholder in Bonner Stinson, P.C., in Cody, Wyoming. The disciplinary matter arose out of Mr. Stinson's conduct during the firm's representation of Dr. John H. Schneider, a Cody neurosurgeon, who became embroiled in a dispute with Dr. Jimmie Biles, an orthopedic surgeon in Cody. Dr. Biles accused Dr. Schneider of having a third party disseminate defamatory statements about him, and then, in the ensuing federal litigation, Dr. Biles accused Dr. Schneider of obstructing justice, suborning perjury, and bribing a witness. Because the charges against Mr. Stinson relate in large part to his knowledge of his client's actions and when he obtained that knowledge, we must first outline in some detail the facts related to the federal proceedings. We will then outline the disciplinary proceedings that resulted from Mr. Stinson's conduct during his representation of Dr. Schneider in the federal proceedings.

A. Federal Proceedings

[¶ 3] On August 29, 2011, Dr. Biles filed a complaint in Federal District Court, for the District of Wyoming, against an Indiana woman by the name of Lisa Fallon. The complaint alleged that Ms. Fallon arranged to print and direct mail a defamatory flyer about Dr. Biles to over 14,000 Wyoming residents. The flyer stated:

Alert —my name is Rita and I was in Cody and broke my ankle this summer and this doctor ‘fixed it”. (sic) He did a terrible job and I needed two more surgeries at home and I am suing him. I looked up this doctor and found this recent arrest. If this is your doctor beware and let the hospital in Cody and your state medical board know about him. He has already been investigated for drunkenness when on call at the hospital and has a dozen lawsuits that he lost! The Wyoming board of medicine told me he has several complaints from other doctors and Physician Assistants that he was drunk at work and in the operating room. Beware! How can they let someone like this practice? You can find this on line at Park County Sheriff's department website.

[¶ 4] The flyer followed this statement with what was alleged to be a booking photo of Dr. Biles, arrest information related to a 2010 driving under the influence charge, and accusations connecting Dr. Biles to: “Lewd act with resisting arrest;” “Illegal possession controlled substance;” and “Felony Investigation.” Aside from the photo and a DWUI arrest, all information in the flyer was false.

[¶ 5] Before filing the action against Ms. Fallon, who lives in Indiana, counsel for Dr. Biles investigated Ms. Fallon's connections with Cody, Wyoming. They found that her only connection to Wyoming was her relationship with Dr. Schneider and his wife, Michelle Schneider. Through further investigation, Dr. Biles' counsel found evidence that connected Dr. Schneider to the company that printed the flyers. Despite having found this connection, Dr. Biles' counsel made the decision to first sue Ms. Fallon and seek discovery from her before proceeding against Dr. Schneider and any other potential defendants.

[¶ 6] In September 2011, Dr. Schneider met with Mr. Stinson and Brad Bonner to discuss the lawsuit that Dr. Biles had filed against Ms. Fallon. Dr. Schneider told Mr. Stinson and Mr. Bonner that Ms. Fallon was a close family friend who could not afford an attorney to defend against the action filed by Dr. Biles. Dr. Schneider asked Mr. Stinson and Mr. Bonner to help find an attorney to represent Ms. Fallon, and he informed them that he wished to pay the fees of that attorney. Mr. Stinson and Mr. Bonner referred Ms. Fallon to an attorney who agreed to represent her, on the condition that Dr. Schneider understood that Ms. Fallon's communications with her counsel would be privileged and that paying for Ms. Fallon's defense did not allow him to control that defense. Ms. Fallon's attorney and Dr. Schneider executed a fee agreement to that effect.

[¶ 7] On October 7, 2011, Ms. Fallon, through her attorney, filed an answer to Dr. Biles' complaint. In that answer, Ms. Fallon admitted that she created and mailed the flyer to the over 14,000 Wyoming residents. Ms. Fallon also admitted that she did not use her own money to print and mail the flyers, but she denied that she acted at the request of a third party. Mr. Stinson received a copy of the answer.

[¶ 8] On October 16, 2011, Mr. Stinson received self-executing discovery submitted by Dr. Biles' counsel in the action against Ms. Fallon, and according to his billing invoice to Dr. Schneider, Mr. Stinson spent over one hour reviewing that discovery. The self-executing discovery included documents that showed that Dr. Schneider ordered and paid for the mailing labels used to distribute the flyer.

[¶ 9] On October 20, 2011, Ms. Fallon's attorney sent her an e-mail questioning her position that she and she alone was responsible for mailing the defamatory flyer. He stated:

Plaintiffs know this was not your idea. The world knows this was not your idea. Four doctors up there had a business Schneider, Biles, Emery, and one other. They split up. The split was horrible and because of the split they do not like each other. They proceed to do mean things to each other. No nurse in Indiana, especially a nice nurse, (remember everybody likes nurses) decides one day to spend her own money and send out a flyer because she does not like the way a doctor is behaving in Wyoming. A state she has never lived. (sic) A doctor who has never treated her. She has never done this before, and now all of sudden she takes a moral crusade against Dr. Biles. Unless you are completely crazy that dog don't hunt, the boat don't float, and that story is not believable.

[¶ 10] Ms. Fallon's attorney did not copy Mr. Stinson with this e-mail or use these terms to describe to Mr. Stinson his reaction to Ms. Fallon's version of events. Ms. Fallon's attorney did, however, sometime in October 2011, tell Mr. Stinson that he felt Ms. Fallon's version was “fanciful and doesn't make any sense.” On October 21, 2011, Mr. Stinson and Ms. Fallon's attorney exchanged e-mails regarding concerns that Ms. Fallon was not being truthful in responding to interrogatories. Specifically, Ms. Fallon's attorney e-mailed Mr. Stinson:

We talk then she has to have a time period to think—where I know she communicates with Schneider. I keep telling her this is not a game just tell the truth, but I think we will never get there on the truth level.

Mr. Stinson responded:

I think you[r] read of circumstances is likely correct. I just told Schneider yesterday to quit talking to her at all. My advice will be ignored.

[¶ 11] On October 31, 2011, Mr. Stinson received and reviewed Ms. Fallon's draft interrogatory responses, which had been forwarded to him by Ms. Fallon's attorney. In those responses, Ms. Fallon again stated that she alone created the flyer, but she also provided names of individuals who provided her information that she used in the flyer. Included among those individuals was Dr. Schneider. Ms. Fallon also stated in her interrogatory responses that Dr. Schneider responded to her plans to send the flyer by stating, “Dr. Biles deserves it as he is a menace to the community of doctors and he was probably going to kill someone when he was drunk.” Additionally, Ms. Fallon elaborated on the details of Dr. Schneider's providing her with the mailing list for the flyer:

Schneider said that they were public files that anyone can use and they did not specifically come from his patient database and were not “his patients” so he had no problem just giving me a labels database from Park County and its surrounding counties. I did not pay for them and Dr. Schneider did not ask for any payment, he just mailed them to me on a stick drive.

[¶ 12] On November 17, 2011, Dr. Biles' counsel took Ms. Fallon's deposition. The deposition was sealed by agreement of the parties, so Mr. Stinson was not able to review the deposition. Ms. Fallon's attorney understood this agreement precluded him from allowing anyone to read the deposition transcript, but he also understood he was permitted to discuss the deposition with Mr. Stinson because Dr. Biles' attorney asked him to convey to Mr. Stinson that Dr. Biles would like to resolve the matter through a financial settlement with Dr. Schneider. On November 21, 2011, Mr. Stinson met with Ms. Fallon's attorney and discussed the deposition. Ms. Fallon's attorney informed Mr. Stinson that Ms. Fallon testified that she alone was responsible for distributing the flyer but that she received the mailing list and the money to cover the cost of the mailing from the Schneiders.

[¶ 13] On November 22, 2011, counsel for both Ms. Fallon and Dr. Biles received a letter with enclosures from the Park County Attorney. The letter enclosed copies of documents that had been printed from a stick drive that a worker in the laundry room of the West Park County Hospital in Cody found in the pocket of a man's surgical scrubs. Hospital administration sent the stick...