Maurello, Matter of
| Decision Date | 24 October 1990 |
| Citation | 121 N.J. 466,582 A.2d 622 |
| Parties | In the Matter of Arthur J. MAURELLO, An Attorney at Law. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Respondent was admitted to the New Jersey bar in 1976. On July 10, 1986, respondent was contacted by an acquaintance, Albert Jannsens, inquiring whether respondent could give him the original will of Jannsens' mother, Helen Bauer, who had died the day before. 1 In that will, Jannsens had been named executor of his mother's estate. Jannsens picked up the will that same day.
On July 14, 1986, the three beneficiaries under the will, Jannsens and his two sisters, Denise Dramm (hereinafter "Grievant") and Marie Uzzalino, met with respondent at his office. In his capacity as executor, Jannsens hired respondent to handle the administration of the estate. Jannsens paid respondent a $200 retainer from Jannsens' personal account.
Later that week, Jannsens gave respondent certain original stock certificates from American Telephone and Telegraph Company ("AT & T"), Bell Atlantic Corporation and Bell South Corporation. The stock had a total value of approximately $8,000.
Between July 25 and July 28, 1986, respondent sent certified letters to the transfer agent, transmitting the original stock certificates and requesting that new certificates be issued in the names of the three beneficiaries. Sometime before mid-September, 1986, the transfer agent sent to respondent's office the security transfer requirement forms to be filled out and signed by Jannsens, as executor of the estate. On October 2, 1986, respondent returned the forms to the transfer agent, duly signed by Jannsens.
On October 3, 1986, respondent received a letter from an attorney, advising him that she had been retained by grievant and her sister, Marie Uzzalino, and addressing some issues of concern to her clients. The attorney made no mention of any problems with the stock certificates. On October 7, 1986, respondent replied to the attorney's letter.
Sometime between October 15 and October 27, 1986, the transfer agent notified respondent that Jannsens' signature had to be guaranteed by a commercial bank or trust company. Although respondent apprised Jannsens of this requirement shortly thereafter, Jannsens did not have his signature guaranteed until March 30, 1987, five months later. 2 On April 10, 1987, respondent forwarded the forms to the transfer agent.
The events that unfolded thereafter are unclear. As respondent testified, either (1) the certificates were sent to his office, where they may have been misplaced, or (2) the certificates were sent to his office, but never received, or (3) the certificates were not sent to his office at all. Respondent does recall that, ultimately, new certificates had to be issued; they were forwarded directly to grievant and her sister. None of the certificates in Jannsens' name was lost or misplaced, only those belonging to grievant and her sister.
In March 1988, grievant filed an ethics grievance against respondent (Exhibit J-1 in evidence), claiming that respondent had "handled this whole matter of transferring some stock in a very unprofessional manner," and that she had called respondent's office "over 5 times" to obtain information about the stock.
On September 15, 1988, a formal ethics complaint was filed, charging respondent with lack of diligence and failure to communicate with grievant, one of the estate beneficiaries (count one); pattern of neglect, following a public reprimand in 1986 (count two); and lack of cooperation with the ethics investigator (count three).
Grievant did not testify at the committee hearing, ostensibly because of the inconvenience of having to travel from Lake Placid, New York, where she resides. The ethics investigator testified, however, about her conversations with grievant. In addition, certain handwritten notes by grievant were admitted into evidence (Exhibit P-1).
At the conclusion of the ethics hearing, the panel found that respondent had failed to communicate with grievant and her attorney (R.P.C. 1.4); handled the estate in a non-diligent fashion (R.P.C. 1.3); and failed to safeguard the property of third persons (R.P.C. 1.15). The hearing panel report concluded that
The specific events surrounding this complaint may not ordinarily be sufficiently grievous for public discipline, and if the panel examined this as an isolated incident, the respondent's negligent conduct may not rise to the level of unethical conduct; however, this panel was profoundly distressed by these events taking place so close in time to the publication of the public reprimand of this respondent in 1986 for a pattern of neglect as well as the prompt resumption of poor habits.
The committee recommended that count three of the complaint (failure to cooperate with ethics investigator) be dismissed.
DISTRICT DOCKET NO. XIV-89-31E
The improper events that gave rise to this matter must be considered against the backdrop of identical behavior previously exhibited by respondent, which led to the imposition of a public reprimand in 1986. Matter of Maurello, 102 N.J. 622, 510 A.2d 36 (1986).
Grievant, Martha Peak, and respondent were married in September 1976. Three years later, in September 1979, they separated. Grievant moved to New York; respondent remained in the marital home in New Jersey, in which he also maintained an office for the practice of law. In June 1981, the parties were divorced.
When grievant moved out of the marital residence, she and respondent reached an understanding that all mail addressed to her would be forwarded to her New York address.
In August 1983, grievant was notified that one of her credit card accounts was delinquent. When she contacted the bank, she learned that respondent had been using that account regularly for some time and that the statements were mailed to respondent's home office. Respondent admitted the use of the credit card, but explained that he did not intentionally try to damage the credit of his former wife. 3
In addition to having used grievant's credit card without her knowledge or authority, respondent attempted to manipulate a witness, Marion Reynolds, in an election contest. In a 1979 primary election, respondent was one of three candidates for two municipal council vacancies. Grievant, at that time respondent's wife, was a candidate for the Republican County Committee. Both respondent and grievant lost the election, grievant having received three fewer votes than Reynolds. At a subsequent meeting with Reynolds, respondent informed her that he had filed a lawsuit challenging the results of both his and his wife's elections, naming Reynolds as a defendant. Respondent advised Reynolds that her residence in a certain municipality would place doubt on her eligibility to vote in another municipality. He promised her, however, that he would withdraw his challenge to her county committee position if she did not appear in court to oppose his challenge to the residential requirements.
The Court ordered that respondent be publicly reprimanded for the above and other ethics transgressions. In mitigation, the Court considered respondent's candor in readily acknowledging the impropriety of his conduct.
In November 1983, during the pendency of the prior disciplinary proceeding and a mere few weeks before the district ethics committee hearings took place in December 1984, respondent, once again without grievant's knowledge or consent, began to use two credit cards issued in grievant's name, Visa and MasterCard. The record shows that, sometime before November 1983, Horizon Bank sent to respondent's address two pre-approved credit card applications in grievant's name. Respondent opened the mail addressed to grievant, inserted his own name as co-applicant, furnished a false name for grievant's employer, and forged grievant's signature on the application, all without grievant's knowledge or approval (Exhibit C-9).
Armed with his ex-wife's credit cards, respondent embarked on a calculated course of regular misuse of his ex-wife's creditworthiness, in the face of his own inability to obtain credit. Between January 1986 and November 1988 alone, respondent charged in excess of $23,000 to grievant's accounts, including approximately $3,400 at a photo shop in New York City, and hotels and restaurants in Ocean City, Maryland, and New Orleans. 4 On at least one occasion, respondent's charges exceeded the credit card limit; on twelve occasions, the accounts became delinquent.
In November 1988, grievant received from TRW Credentials Service an abstract of her credit record (Exhibit C-3A). It was then that grievant discovered, for the first time, that there existed two credit cards in her and respondent's joint names and, to her horror, that respondent had obtained the cards through forgery and deceit, more than two years after their divorce was granted and four years after their...
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U.S. v. Maurello, 95-5109
...credit cards in the name of his former wife and tampered with a witness in the course of the ethics investigation. In re Maurello, 121 N.J. 466, 478-79, 582 A.2d 622 (1990). As a result, on October 26, 1990, Mr. Maurello was permanently disbarred by the New Jersey Supreme Court. Id. In 1989......