Levy, In re, 63591

• Decision Date: 30 January 1987
• Docket Number: No. 63591,63591
• Citation: 105 Ill.Dec. 238,504 N.E.2d 107,115 Ill.2d 395
• Parties: , 105 Ill.Dec. 238 In re Stephen LEVY, Attorney, Respondent.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 107

504 N.E.2d 107

115 Ill.2d 395, 105 Ill.Dec. 238

In re Stephen LEVY, Attorney, Respondent.

No. 63591.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Jan. 30, 1987.

Scott Renfroe, Atty. Registration and Disciplinary Com'n., Chicago, for Administrator.

Sidney Z. Karasik, Chicago, for respondent.

Justice SIMON delivered the opinion of the court:

The Administrator of the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC) charged the respondent, Stephen Levy, with knowingly negotiating a check containing a false endorsement. The Hearing Board of the ARDC concluded that Mr. Levy was guilty of the offense charged and determined that the proper sanction for his offense was a reprimand. The Administrator carried the matter to the Review Board and argued before that Board that the respondent's misconduct warranted suspension from the practice of law. The Review Board affirmed the Hearing Board's determination, and the matter comes to this court upon the Administrator's exceptions to the Review Board's decision.

There is essentially no dispute over the facts. The issue we are called upon to decide is what sanction should be imposed--a reprimand, as the hearing and review boards decided, a two-year suspension as the Administrator demands, or other discipline.

Mercedes Hoffman retained the respondent to represent her in a dissolution-of-marriage action against her husband, Sam Hoffman. Several months later, Mrs. Hoffman and her sister, Rita Homer, were injured in an automobile accident and employed the respondent to represent them in their suit against the other driver. The respondent negotiated a settlement with the driver's insurance company.

By the time of the settlement, the dissolution proceeding was being hotly contested. Mrs. Hoffman and her husband had separated prior to the automobile accident, and at the time of the settlement Mr. Hoffman was not providing his wife with any financial support. Believing that Mr. Hoffman had no potential interest in the settlement, the respondent requested the insurance company to issue a settlement check payable only to Mrs. Hoffman. The adjuster, however, informed the respondent that the insurance company's policy was to include spouses on the release form and settlement check and that it would therefore be necessary to include Mr. Hoffman's name on both the form and the check.

Respondent received two releases and two checks, one set made out to Mercedes and Sam Hoffman and the other to Rita and Glen Homer. Respondent called Mrs. Hoffman and asked her to bring her sister and their husbands to his office to sign the documents. Upon arriving at the respondent's office, Mrs. Hoffman informed the respondent that she had not asked her husband to attend because he had no interest in the lawsuit. The respondent testified that he was then called out of the room to receive a phone call and that when he returned, he noticed Mr. Hoffman's signature on both Mrs. Hoffman's release and her check. The respondent asked how the signatures got there, and Mrs. Hoffman replied that Mr. Homer had signed her husband's name.

The respondent's position is that although he was uncomfortable with the false signature, he endorsed the check cashed it at his bank, and gave Mrs. Hoffman the client's share, because Mr. Hoffman had not been making support payments and Mrs. Hoffman claimed that she needed the settlement proceeds. After the respondent mailed the release forms to the insurance company, they were returned because the signatures had not been witnessed. The respondent signed his name as a witness for the signatures of Mrs. Hoffman, Mrs. Homer and Mr. Homer; he left a blank space besides the purported signature of Sam Hoffman and returned the releases to the insurance company.

Upon discovering that his name had been falsely signed, Mr. Hoffman complained to the ARDC. He testified that he called the respondent several times concerning his purported signatures; he admitted telling the respondent that he was going to report him to the "Registration Office." On cross-examination Mr. Hoffman conceded that he had no interest in the settlement proceeds.

The respondent stated that Mr. Hoffman phoned him several times and was abusive. According to the respondent, Mr. Hoffman demanded $60,000 and threatened to report him to the authorities unless the respondent paid Hoffman $60,000. The respondent explained that he thought Mr. Hoffman was asking for this amount because in the dissolution proceeding it was established that Mr. Hoffman had diverted $62,567.60 from his business. The respondent was contending that Mr. Hoffman was obligated to return this sum so that it could be apportioned as marital property.

The Administrator maintains that the respondent's conduct was fraudulent within this court's definition of fraud in In re Armentrout (1983), 99 Ill.2d 242, 75 Ill.Dec. 703, 457 N.E.2d 1262. Armentrout involved a State's Attorney's attempt to deceive and defraud by organizing a scheme to forge signatures on petitions in order to induce election officials to place a referendum proposition on the election ballot. In Armentrout this court concluded that "[a]cts of forgery most certainly involve 'dishonesty, fraud, deceit, [and] misrepresentation' and are contrary to the bar's fundamental obligation of honesty." 99 Ill.2d 242, 251, 75 Ill.Dec. 703, 457 N.E.2d 1262, quoting In re Lamberis (1982), 93 Ill.2d 222, 228, 66 Ill.Dec. 623, 443 N.E.2d 547.

Armentrout is clearly distinguishable from this case. An essential element of forgery is an intent to defraud. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1985, ch. 38, par. 17-3.) The statute defines an intent to defraud with respect to the crime...