Lawyer Disciplinary Bd. v. Taylor
| Decision Date | 22 November 1994 |
| Docket Number | No. 22412,22412 |
| Citation | 192 W.Va. 139,451 S.E.2d 440 |
| Parties | LAWYER DISCIPLINARY BOARD, Complainant, v. George Sylvester TAYLOR, a Member of the West Virginia State Bar, Respondent. |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court
1. " .' Syl. pt. 1, Committee on Legal Ethics v. Six, 181 W.Va. 52, 380 S.E.2d 219 (1989).
2. "In order to expedite the investigation of an ethics complaint by the Bar, an attorney's failure to respond to a request for information concerning allegations of ethical violations within a reasonable time will constitute an admission to those allegations for the purposes of the disciplinary proceeding." Syl. pt. 2, Committee on Legal Ethics v. Martin, 187 W.Va. 340, 419 S.E.2d 4 (1992).
3. Syl. pt. 2, Committee on Legal Ethics of W. Va. v. Taylor, 190 W.Va. 133, 437 S.E.2d 443 (1993).
Sherri D. Goodman, Chief Disciplinary Counsel, W. Va. State Bar, Charleston, for complainant.
George Sylvester Taylor, pro se.
In this attorney disciplinary proceeding, the Lawyer Disciplinary Board (hereinafter "Board") recommends that this Court annul the law license of the respondent, George Sylvester Taylor, a suspended member of the West Virginia State Bar, for ethical violations involving worthless checks and receipt of goods without payment. The Board further recommends that Mr. Taylor not be permitted to petition for reinstatement until he has made restitution to all individuals and entities to whom he tendered worthless checks. For the reasons stated below, we adopt the Board's recommendations and order the annulment of Mr. Taylor's license to practice law in West Virginia. We further order that Mr. Taylor not be permitted to petition for reinstatement until he has made restitution to all individuals and entities to whom he tendered worthless checks.
On January 15, 1994, a statement of charges was issued against Mr. Taylor by the Board's Investigative Panel. 1 Though Mr. Taylor was personally served with this statement of charges on February 3, 1994, he has not filed an answer thereto. A prehearing procedures and scheduling order, scheduling a prehearing conference on May 24, 1994, at 9:30 a.m., was served upon Mr. Taylor at his Charlotte, North Carolina address and at his post office box in Logan County, West Virginia, by certified mail, return receipt requested. Service was accepted on May 6, 1994 and May 7, 1994.
According to the sworn testimony of Cynthia Lowther, a legal ethics assistant at the West Virginia State Bar, she telephoned Mr. Taylor in North Carolina at 9:20 a.m. on May 24, 1994. Mr. Taylor told Ms. Lowther that he had a previous engagement and would not be participating in the prehearing conference, which was to begin in ten minutes.
During the prehearing conference, which was conducted despite Mr. Taylor's absence, Chief Disciplinary Counsel moved the Committee on Legal Ethics Hearing Panel Subcommittee (hereinafter "Subcommittee") for an order deeming the charges contained in the current statement of charges to be admitted pursuant to Committee on Legal Ethics v. Martin, 187 W.Va. 340, 419 S.E.2d 4 (1992) 2 and cancelling the hearing scheduled for June 7, 1994. The Subcommittee granted the Chief Disciplinary Counsel's motion.
Though this matter was submitted on briefs to this Court on October 5, 1994, Mr. Taylor did not respond to the Board's findings of fact and conclusions of law and the recommendation that his law license be annulled. 3 We note that in the two prior disciplinary proceedings instituted against Mr. Taylor, 4 he chose not to participate in the hearings. Furthermore, he has not yet reimbursed the Board for the costs of those proceedings, though he was ordered to do so.
Mr. Taylor maintained two bank accounts at the Logan Bank & Trust Company: (1) account number 008-649-5, in the name of "G. Sylvester Taylor, P.C." and (2) account number 002-943-2, in the name of "Escrow Account for G. Sylvester Taylor, P.C." Between July 13, 1992, the date the escrow account was opened, and October 30, 1992, Mr. Taylor wrote five checks totalling $842.16 5 which were returned for insufficient funds. As of September 30, 1992, the account was in arrears $49.95, having incurred $80 worth of nonsufficient funds charges.
Mr. Taylor opened the "G. Sylvester Taylor, P.C." account on October 4, 1991. Between May 29, 1992 and August 31, 1992, Mr. Taylor wrote thirteen checks in the amount of $5,255.42 6 which were returned for insufficient funds. There was no activity in that account after August, 1992. That account was eventually closed.
Mr. Taylor also maintained the following accounts at The National Bank of Logan: (1) account number 39791, maintained from January 27, 1993, until at least July 1, 1993, in the name of "G. Sylvester Taylor, Jr., Attorney at Law--Trust Account"; (2) account number 39802, maintained from February 22, 1993, until June 30, 1993, in the name of ; and (3) account number 4-47957, maintained from August 7, 1992, until March 25, 1993, in the name of "G. Sylvester Taylor or Lessie A. Taylor."
Mr. Taylor wrote two checks totalling $700 7 on the trust account which were returned for insufficient funds. Similarly, he wrote six checks on the P.C. account in the amount of $2,042.65 and sixteen checks on his personal account in the amount of $4,361.83, all of which were returned for insufficient funds.
The Board has charged Mr. Taylor with engaging in a pattern of knowingly writing checks on bank accounts with insufficient funds, in violation of W.Va.Code, 61-3-39 [1977] 8 and Rule 8.4(b) and (c) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. 9 The Board has also charged Mr. Taylor with writing checks for clothing, rent and utilities from his escrow accounts, in violation of Rule 1.15(a) of the Rules of Professional Conduct 10 and with maintaining checking accounts in the name "G. Sylvester Taylor, P.C." when there was no legal corporation and when he could not otherwise practice as a professional corporation, in violation of Rule 7.5(a) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. 11
On July 30, 1991, Mr. Taylor contacted Apogee Computer Systems, Inc. (hereinafter "Apogee"), of Denver, Colorado for information on a software product called LawBase. Apogee sent to Mr. Taylor a demonstration copy on August 2, 1991. On August 15, 1991, an Apogee employee spoke with Mr. Taylor by telephone and walked him through the program. On August 28, 1991, Apogee sent to Mr. Taylor a contract at his request. On September 4, 1991, Mr. Taylor signed and returned a licensing agreement to Apogee in the amount of $3,000. Apogee then sent the software product and a user manual to Mr. Taylor on September 13, 1991.
Mr. Taylor promised payment to Apogee, and its president, Philip L. Homburger, on several occasions. On December 24, 1991, Mr. Taylor provided Mr. Homburger with a Federal Express airbill number, claiming that he was sending payment that day. However, Mr. Homburger never received payment and Federal Express has no record of receiving such a package. Apogee subsequently sued Mr. Taylor for payment and obtained a default judgment against him.
The Board has charged Mr. Taylor with ordering software and refusing to return it or pay for it, in violation of Rule 8.4(c) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. 12
Mr. Taylor contacted Sid Messer of Overland Park, Kansas, operator of the Abilene Trading Company, a Negro League Baseball Museum located near Abilene, Kansas. Wishing to order merchandise from Mr. Messer, Mr. Taylor told Mr. Messer that he was an attorney who also ran a little sporting goods store. Mr. Taylor told Mr. Messer that he wanted to purchase several licensed T-shirts and baseball caps to sell in his store.
When asked if he would accept the merchandise C.O.D., Mr. Taylor agreed so long as Mr. Messer would accept a company check. Mr. Messer shipped the order to Mr. Taylor and on October 25, 1993, Mr. Taylor wrote to Mr. Messer a check in the amount of $422.51. The check was written on The National Bank of Logan, account number 03-980-02, This check was returned to Mr. Messer on or about November 9, 1993, because that account had been closed. Mr. Messer called Mr. Taylor at least three times in order to obtain payment. He spoke with Mr. Taylor once and to an individual named Monica on the other two occasions. Mr. Taylor neither returned the merchandise nor made any attempt to pay for it.
The Board has charged Mr. Taylor with obtaining a property in return for a worthless check, in violation of W.Va.Code, 61-3-39 [1977] 13 and Rule 8.4(b) and (c) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. 14
In a prior disciplinary proceeding, Committee on Legal Ethics v. Taylor, 190 W.Va. 133, 437 S.E.2d 443 (1993), 15 Mr. Taylor, inter alia, had ordered and received a computer software package from Blue Jay Systems of Sarasota, Florida. Mr. Taylor wrote a check to Blue Jay Systems in the amount of $369. That check was returned for insufficient funds and the Committee charged Mr. Taylor with writing a check on an account which he knew lacked sufficient funds and with failing to...
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