Matter of Jones

• Citation: 521 A.2d 1119
• Decision Date: 04 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. 86-802.,86-802.
• Parties: In the Matter of Dorothy Wilkerson JONES, Respondent.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Columbia District

Page 1119

521 A.2d 1119

In the Matter of Dorothy Wilkerson JONES, Respondent.

No. 86-802.

District of Columbia Court of Appeals.

Submitted August 21, 1986.

Decided September 4, 1986.^*

Before NEBEKER, MACK and ROGERS, Associate Judges.

ORDER

On this disciplinary case, respondent is charged with engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, neglecting a legal matter, and failure to maintain complete client records. The Board on Professional Responsibility has recommended that the respondent be disciplined by means of a public censure. Respondent has not contested the Board's recommendation.

We conclude that respondent has violated Disciplinary Rules DR 1-102(A)(5) (conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice), DR 6-101(A)(3) (neglect of legal matter), and DR 9-103(B)(3) (failure to maintain complete client records). We also agree with the Board's recommendation of public censure, as set forth more fully in the Board's Report and Recommendation appended hereto and incorporated by reference. Accordingly, it is

ORDERED by the court that respondent Dorothy Wilkerson Jones, be, and she hereby is, publicly censured.

APPENDIX

DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA COURT OF APPEALS BOARD ON PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

Docket No. 403-84

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION OF THE BOARD ON PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

This case was submitted to the Board on Professional Responsibility without oral argument or briefs after Hearing Committee Number Eight found Respondent had violated four provisions of the Code of Professional Responsibility. Specifically, the Hearing Committee found that Respondent had violated Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(5) by engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice; Disciplinary Rule 6-101(A)(3) by neglecting a legal matter entrusted to her; Disciplinary Rule 9-103(B)(3) in that she did not maintain complete client records within her possession and to also account to that client; and finally Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(4) for engaging in conduct involving dishonesty.

In reviewing the record, the Board finds substantial evidence to support the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law of the Hearing Committee on all counts with exception of the violation of Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(4). There is insufficient evidence to support the count involving dishonesty, and thus we decline to adopt the Hearing Committee's Findings and Conclusions to that extent.

Lastly, the Hearing Committee — in view of the four code violations they found — recommended a suspension of a year and a day. Upon reviewing the evidence here and previous sanctions of our appellate court in comparable cases, we recommend to the District of Columbia Court of Appeals that Respondent receive a public censure. The Board has reached these conclusions after considering the information and precedents that follow.

I. FINDINGS

Respondent was appointed by the Superior Court of the District of Columbia as the Temporary Conservator of the estate and person of Claire P. Chatham on October 15, 1981. Mrs. Chatham, a widow, was over seventy years of age and living alone at the time. After a Report and Recommendation of a Guardian Ad Litem Respondent was appointed by Court Order of December 17, 1981 to be the Permanent Conservator. While Mrs. Chatham had an adult daughter living in the metropolitan area, the Court empowered Respondent to handle all the financial affairs of Mrs. Chatham.¹ An Inventory Report was due to be filed by Respondent on November 15, 1981. That Report was not filed by Respondent. She also failed to file an accounting on February 17, 1982. Each report is required by Rule 305(a) of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Rules of Civil Procedure. Both accounting reports were still unfiled when the Court on June 10, 1982, issued a Notice of Summary Hearing on the question of Respondent's removal for failure to file the required reports. When the hearing came on before the Court on July 1, 1982, Respondent did not appear and was in fact removed by Court Order dated July 6, 1982.

In the same July Order, Nathan I. Silver was appointed Successor Conservator. The Court additionally referred the matter to the Auditor-Master to state the account on behalf of Respondent and to report its findings and recommendations to the Court. Respondent turned over to Mr. Silver in a nonexpeditious manner several documents including the checking account for Mrs. Chatham.

The Auditor-Masters' Report filed on July 25, 1984, detailed the assets of Mrs. Chatham and found a shortage of $2,209.89. This amount consisted of $2,188.57 in disallowed checks (most made out to cash) and two missing dividend checks for $9.84 and $11.48. No documentation was submitted by Respondent for the checks made out to cash, although she maintained that each merely reimbursed Mrs. Chathman's housekeeper for expended shopping funds and/or compensated a gentleman for working on the lawn of Mrs. Chatham's house. Included in the sum of $2,188.57 also was a check for $94.00 made payable to Mid-Town T.V. This amount, again without documentation, was disallowed by the Auditor-Master.

The housekeeper did not testify before the Hearing Committee and Respondent testified that she could not locate the appropriate receipts. In connection with the dividend checks, Respondent testified that Mrs. Chatham's mail had been kept in disorderly fashion before her appointment. (Tr. 64-65). The Auditor-Master requested judgment be entered against Respondent for $2,209.89 and further asked for a fee of $400.00 to be assessed for the work performed by its office. Judge Carlisle Pratt of the Superior Court agreed, and by Order of September 24, 1984 approved the Report of the Auditor-Master and entered judgment against Respondent (and her bonding company) for $2,209.89 and costs of $400.00.

Bar Counsel began his inquiry to Respondent in November, 1984.² Respondent replied by mailgram on January 29, 1985. Thereafter she did not respond to the inquiries of Bar Counsel. (Tr. 50-53). The Petition was filed in July 1985 and the Hearing Committee received testimony on September 26, 1985. Respondent participated in the hearing and testified.

II. VIOLATIONS OF THE CODE

The Hearing Committee had a twopronged basis for their conclusion that Respondent had violated Disciplinary Rule 1-102(AX) charging that she engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice. They found she had failed to cooperate with the Auditor-Master and failed to respond to the legitimate written inquiries of Bar Counsel. The first basis is not, in our view, supported by substantial evidence; the second is admitted by Respondent in her testimony. (Tr. 50). Respondent testified that she had never received the Notice from the Court for the Summary Hearing on July 1, 1982, on her potential removal as Conservator. (Tr. 48). Further, she gave the Hearing Committee information that she moved her office address from 6402 Georgia Avenue, N.W., to 6400 Georgia Avenue, N.W., to 59101/2 Georgia Avenue, N.W., and finally to 2700 Georgia Avenue, N.W. (Tr. 38-39). There were no specific dates asked or given for these office moves in the testimony before the Hearing Committee.

Following her removal by the Court, the Auditor-Master was authorized by Court Order to complete the accounting that Respondent had failed to perform. In this process at least one meeting of counsel was set in September 1982. Respondent arrived late for this meeting (Tr. 39) and the Hearing Committee concluded that, in effect, she did not appear at all. H.Comm. Rpt. p. 7. It is apparent, however, from the testimony of John W. Follin, the Auditor-Master, that Respondent did appear at his office on this occasion, albeit late, and produced some of the documents he required. (Tr. 21). Therefore, failure of Respondent to cooperate with the Auditor-Master during the development of the accounting is not supported by the record.

The Auditor-Master when acting under Orders from the Court stands as a judicial representative with the legal powers of the Superior Court. In re Washington, 489 A.2d 452, 460 (D.C. 1985). As such, its requirements should not be taken lightly by the Bar. The removal of Respondent as Conservator also did not relieve her of the obligation of responding to the requests of the Auditor-Master. Although the failure of any member of the Bar to comply with requests or orders of the Auditor-Master is fully covered by Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(5), the alleged violation in this case is not supported by substantial evidence. Respondent has been far from the model of cooperation, but evidence does show she turned over to the Successor Conservator the material she possessed (Tr. 32) and did provide the Auditor-Master with what documentation she could locate (Tr. 39).

There is, on the other hand, a long line of cases which unequivocally holds that the failure of a member of our Bar to respond to Bar Counsel's legitimate written inquiries is a violation of Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(5). In re Haupt, 444 A.2d 317 (D.C. 1982); In re Lieber, 442 A.2d 153 (D.C. 1982); In re Whitlock, 441 A.2d 989 (D.C. 1982); In re Russell, 424 A.2d 1087 (D.C. 1980); In re Willcher, 404 A.2d 185 (D.C. 1979). Respondent, as we said, has admitted that she knew about the charges in January 1985 (Tr. 50) and did not respond to Bar Counsel's correspondence. (Tr. 47).

With respect to the violation of Disciplinary Rule 6-101(A)(3) charging neglect of a legal matter, there is no question that Respondent did not file the required reports (Tr. 47). Rule 305(a) and (e) of the Superior Court Rules of Civil Procedure. The development of and filing of the accountings was required of Respondent in the course of her duties, and thus she failed to carry out one of her core fiduciary functions. In re Banks, 461 A.2d 1038, 1039-1040 (D.C. 1983). Rules 301, et seq., of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia Rules of Civil Procedure require the...