Columbus Bar Ass'n v. Chodosh
| Decision Date | 07 March 2019 |
| Docket Number | No. 2018-1094,2018-1094 |
| Citation | 156 Ohio St.3d 288,125 N.E.3d 878,2019 Ohio 765 |
| Parties | COLUMBUS BAR ASSOCIATION v. CHODOSH. |
| Court | Ohio Supreme Court |
G. Michael Romanello ; John C. Hartranft Sr. ; and Kent R. Markus, Bar Counsel, and A. Alysha Clous, Assistant Bar Counsel, for relator.
Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter, L.P.A., and Jonathan E. Coughlan, for respondent.
{¶ 1} Respondent, Louis Jay Chodosh, of Columbus, Ohio, Attorney Registration No. 0005234, was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio in 1977.
{¶ 2} In a September 2017 complaint, relator, Columbus Bar Association, alleged that Chodosh violated multiple professional-conduct rules by failing to reasonably communicate with two personal-injury clients and by failing to properly disclose to those clients his fee-sharing arrangement with attorneys outside his firm. Relator further alleged that Chodosh engaged in dishonest conduct by forging the signature of one of those clients on several legal documents and allowing one of those signatures to be falsely notarized, that he failed to properly execute a closing statement at the conclusion of that client's case, and that he revealed confidential information about the other client's representation without her consent.
{¶ 3} The parties entered into stipulations of fact and agreed that Chodosh committed some of the alleged misconduct, but they disputed one alleged rule violation and relator agreed to dismiss two others. They also stipulated to the relevant aggravating and mitigating factors and agreed that the appropriate sanction for Chodosh's misconduct is a stayed 12-month suspension. Based on those stipulations and the evidence adduced at a hearing, the board made findings of fact and conclusions of law and recommends that we suspend Chodosh for 12 months, all stayed on the conditions that he engage in no further misconduct and that he pay the costs of this proceeding. We accept the board's findings and agree that a conditionally stayed 12-month suspension is the appropriate sanction for Chodosh's misconduct.
{¶ 4} In October 2012, Patricia Cline caught the heel of her shoe on loose carpet and fell down a flight of stairs in a common area of the apartment building where she resided. In May 2013, an attorney at the Donahey Law Firm, L.L.C., referred her to Chodosh.
{¶ 5} After speaking with Cline at the end of May, Chodosh sent her several forms, which she completed and returned to him in early June. Among those forms was a power of attorney that purported to appoint Chodosh as Cline's attorney-in-fact to represent her in her case against the building's owner, Plaza Properties, Inc., and to receive checks on her behalf, but that document also expressly stated that Chodosh did not have the authority to cash those checks.
{¶ 6} Cline also signed a fee agreement in which she agreed to pay Chodosh a contingency fee of 33? percent if her case settled before trial. The agreement further provided, "Client agrees that Donahey Law Office, Attorney, is co-counsel in this case and will receive 33?% of any fees collected." Chodosh verbally informed Cline that the firm would share his fee, but he never informed Cline in writing that each lawyer was assuming joint responsibility for the representation or that the division of fees would correspond to the proportion of the services each lawyer performed.
{¶ 7} In late July 2013, Chodosh asked Cline to complete a proof-of-representation form that would permit him to obtain information regarding her medical expenses from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Cline signed the form on August 2, 2013, and returned it to Chodosh.
{¶ 8} After evaluating Cline's case, Chodosh concluded that Plaza Properties' liability was questionable and that Cline's preexisting medical conditions made it difficult to discern the value of her claim. In an effort to commence settlement negotiations, he submitted a settlement demand to Plaza Properties' insurer in late August 2014. The demand falsely stated that Cline had authorized Chodosh to make an initial settlement demand of $75,000; he had never discussed that amount with Cline, let alone obtained her consent to make that demand. The following month, Chodosh forwarded documents to the insurer showing that Medicare had been billed $9,307.26 for Cline's treatment and had paid $727.92, but the insurer later convinced him that Medicare had only a $5,621.70 lien. Without first discussing the issue with Cline, Chodosh told the insurer that he and Cline were willing to sign a "hold harmless" agreement stating that they would be responsible for any reimbursement to Medicare.
{¶ 9} In September 2014, approximately two weeks before the statute of limitations would have expired, Chodosh agreed to settle Cline's claims for $25,000 even though he had not yet received final communication from Medicare regarding the amount of its lien. The insurer issued two checks payable to "Patricia Cline and Chodosh & Chodosh, as Attorneys" and a release of claims for Cline to sign before a notary public. Chodosh signed Cline's name to both checks and deposited them into his client trust account. The parties stipulated and the board found that Chodosh signed Cline's name on the release, signed his own name as a witness to Cline's signature, and then directed his secretary to notarize Cline's signature on the release before returning it to the insurer—albeit with Cline's knowledge.1
{¶ 10} On October 2, 2014, Chodosh sent Cline a letter, an $11,000 client-trust-account check, and an unsigned settlement-distribution sheet. The settlement-distribution sheet identified distributions of $11,000 to Cline, $2,000 to the Donahey Law Firm (though there was no evidence that any attorney from that firm had performed any work on the case), and $4,000 to Chodosh as a reduced attorney fee. It stated that a reserve of $8,000 would be held in trust to satisfy an anticipated Medicare lien. The letter explained that if that lien was less than $8,000, the first $2,300 of any surplus would satisfy the remainder of Cline's 33? percent attorney fee and that any remaining balance would be returned to Cline.
{¶ 11} Cline died in January 2018. At the time of the disciplinary hearing, Chodosh continued to hold the $8,000 allocated to satisfy the Medicare lien in his client-trust account. Chodosh testified that every three months, he asks Medicare to state the amount of its lien. He stated that once the lien is satisfied and the remainder of his fee is paid, any remaining funds will be paid to Cline's heirs.
{¶ 12} The parties stipulated and the board found that Chodosh's conduct violated Prof.Cond.R. 1.2(a) (), 1.4(a)(3) (), 1.5(c)(2) (), 1.5(e) (), and 8.4(c) ().2
{¶ 13} Karen Jewell slipped and fell at a restaurant in July 2013. Dissatisfied with the attorney she had initially retained to pursue her claim, she sought representation from the Law Offices of Kevin Kurgis, which referred her to Chodosh. On June 23, 2014, Jewell signed a contingent-fee agreement agreeing to pay Chodosh one-third of any pretrial recovery. That agreement also provided, "Client agrees that Kurgis & Assoc[iates], Attorney, is co-counsel in this case and will receive 33?% of any fees collected," but it did not state that each lawyer had assumed joint responsibility for the representation or that the fee division would be in proportion to the services performed by each lawyer.
{¶ 14} In investigating Jewell's case, Chodosh learned that the restaurant had no record of Jewell's fall. Jewell provided Chodosh with a statement from her mother, who had witnessed the incident. Chodosh submitted that statement to the restaurant and had Jewell provide a recorded statement to the adjuster for the restaurant's insurer. Thereafter, he concluded that settlement was unlikely, and believing that the case would need to be litigated, he "transferred" Jewell's case file to attorney Sanford Meizlish in November 2014, without Jewell's knowledge or consent. Meizlish, who was not a member of Chodosh's firm, copied the file and returned the original to Chodosh. Although Chodosh expected to retain a "fee interest" in Jewell's case, he did not discuss attorney fees or the terms of Jewell's representation with Meizlish.
{¶ 15} Jewell first learned that Chodosh had referred her case to Meizlish after Meizlish wrote to her in late November 2014 and asked her to call his office to schedule an appointment with him. In January 2015, Meizlish wrote to inform her that she needed to advance $750 for the costs of litigation if she wanted him to represent her. Having received no response from Jewell, Meizlish sent her another letter in early March 2015 to inform her that he was "closing his file."
{¶ 16} In late April 2015, Jewell wrote to Chodosh,...
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Columbus Bar Ass'n v. Davis
...Mangeni investigation.{¶ 18} The board also found that Davis's conduct was comparable to the misconduct at issue in Columbus Bar Assn. v. Chodosh , 156 Ohio St.3d 288, 2019-Ohio-765, 125 N.E.3d 878. Chodosh failed to reasonably communicate with two clients, failed to properly disclose his f......