State ex rel. Okla. Bar Ass'n v. Mansfield

• Decision Date: 13 April 2015
• Docket Number: No. SCBD–6103.,SCBD–6103.
• Citation: 350 P.3d 108,2015 OK 22
• Parties: STATE of Oklahoma, ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION, Complainant, v. Christopher I. MANSFIELD, Respondent.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

350 P.3d 108

2015 OK 22

STATE of Oklahoma, ex rel. OKLAHOMA BAR ASSOCIATION, Complainant

v.Christopher I. MANSFIELD, Respondent.

No. SCBD–6103.

Supreme Court of Oklahoma.

April 13, 2015.

Gina L. Hendryx, Oklahoma Bar Association, Oklahoma City, OK, for Complainant.

Charles F. Alden, III, Oklahoma City, OK, for Respondent.

Opinion

GURICH, J.

¶ 1 On January 16, 2014, the Oklahoma Bar Association (OBA) filed a complaint against attorney Christopher I. Mansfield, alleging professional misconduct as authorized by Rule 6.1 of the Rules Governing Disciplinary Proceedings (RGDP).¹ After hearing the testimony of several witnesses and being presented with exhibits, the Professional Responsibility Tribunal (PRT) concluded that Mansfield violated Rule 3.3, Rule 8.4(c), and Rule 8.4(d) of the Oklahoma Rules of Professional Conduct (ORPC) and Rule 1.3 of the RGDP. The PRT recommended Mansfield's license to practice law be suspended for a period of eighteen months.

Factual Background and Procedural History

¶ 2 Respondent, Christopher I. Mansfield, was admitted to practice law in Oklahoma in 2005. Since that time, Respondent has practiced primarily in Tulsa in the areas of probate, adoption, and guardianship. Respondent regularly receives guardian ad litem court appointments and court appointments in probate, adoption, and guardianship matters. The facts surrounding the Complaint filed by the OBA stem from one such court appointment.

¶ 3 On February 12, 2009, the probate of the Estate of Elizabeth S. Cox was commenced in Tulsa County. The record from the PRT hearing indicates the heirs to the Cox Estate had a long-standing acrimonious relationship with each other. On March 18, 2009, the probate judge, the Honorable Jesse Harris, appointed Respondent as Special Administrator of the Estate of Elizabeth S. Cox to assist in sorting out the various disputes between the parties. Before his appointment to the Cox Estate, Respondent had previously been appointed to serve in at least a dozen other cases.

¶ 4 Shortly after being appointed Special Administrator of the Cox Estate, Judge Harris appointed Respondent to serve as Successor Trustee of the Elizabeth S. Cox Revocable Trust. On September 22, 2010, Judge Harris appointed Respondent as Personal Representative of the Estate of Elizabeth S. Cox. Upon being appointed Personal Representative, Respondent testified his duties expanded from “simply securing inventory and protecting [it] to—moving forward with the full probate process, ... selling, distributing, [and] dealing with creditors claims.”² At this point, it appears Respondent also began doing the legal work to probate the Cox Estate.³ Respondent also hired Mr. Ed's Auction House to conduct a sale of real and personal property owned by the trust, namely a farm and the personal property thereon.⁴ The property sold on or around November 30, 2010, for $530,748.43, and the money was deposited into the appropriate bank accounts. Up to this point, Respondent acted appropriately in all regards as to his administration of the Cox Estate.

¶ 5 Respondent's personal life then became tumultuous. In February of 2011, Respondent's wife informed him she had quit her job. She then began spending large amounts of money, including monthly credit card charges of between $6,000 and $12,000 dollars. In May of 2011, Respondent came home “to very abruptly discover [his wife] was having an affair.”⁵ Respondent testified his wife threatened to take him for every dime he had and to take his daughter if he left her, so during this time he was just “trying to make ends meet and keep [his wife] happy” and provide for his three-month old daughter. Respondent began transferring money from the Cox Estate bank account to his personal bank account without prior approval from the court and without telling the heirs to the Cox Estate. Between May of 2011 and December of 2011, Respondent made six transfers of varying amounts totaling approximately $45,749.98. The record indicates the amount transferred was the amount allegedly earned for legal and statutory fees for administering the Cox Estate.⁶ Divorce proceedings were filed in December of 2011, and Respondent's divorce was final in February of 2012.

¶ 6 In August of 2012, the heirs to the Cox Estate participated in a mediation to try and resolve disputes regarding distribution of the estate. Respondent was present at the mediation, and as part of the settlement agreement, he agreed to a reduced fee in the amount of $27,500.00 for his work on the estate. Respondent did not inform the parties or the mediator that he had already removed in excess of $45,000.00 in fees from the estate bank account. When questioned about why he did not disclose such information at the mediation, Respondent stated he did not intend to hide the transfers but that his mind was elsewhere with regard to the estate, specifically the monthly farm statements and accounting for the money spent on upgrading and maintaining the farm.

¶ 7 On November 21, 2012, Respondent filed his “Final Report and Final Account, Petition for Order Allowing Final Report and Final Account and Determining Heirship and Petition for Final Decree of Distribution and Discharge,” (“First Final Report”) wherein he stated he had agreed to a payment of $27,500.00 for fees. Respondent did not disclose to the court in this pleading that he had previously withdrawn more than $45,000.00 in legal and administrative fees from the estate account. Respondent also stated that the total amount available for distribution was $491,302.04, which was approximately $18,000.00 less than what should have been available for distribution.

¶ 8 Shortly after the First Final Report was filed, James Gotwals, the attorney for one of the heirs to the Cox Estate, requested additional supporting documentation for estate expenses listed in the final accounting. Mr. Gotwals testified that nothing in the First Final Report itself necessarily raised concerns, but up to that point, neither he nor his client had seen any documents pertaining to the sale of the farm, which constituted a majority of the assets in the estate. After Mr. Gotwals' request, Respondent provided certain documentation for estate expenses listed in the First Final Report, including a purported “Seller's Statement” from Mr. Ed's Auction House. However, before giving Mr. Gotwals the Seller's Statement, Respondent altered it to reflect an inflated and incorrect cost of $41,474.24 for property maintenance. Respondent testified he inflated the amount for property maintenance on the Seller's Statement to cover up the money he had transferred from the estate. When asked why he didn't “come clean” at that point about the previously transferred money, Respondent testified that he realized the awful mistake he had made, and in a moment of panic, he made a stupid decision.

¶ 9 Mr. Gotwals testified that when he received the Seller's Statement from Respondent, he was concerned about the amount listed for property maintenance. Although Mr. Ed's Auction House had done some things to get the property ready for sale, Mr. Gotwals testified the Seller's Statement also reflected Mr. Ed's Auction House had received a 7% commission from the sale, which amounted to $40,600.00. Mr. Gotwals was concerned about the amount of money charged for property maintenance on top of the $40,600.00 commission. Although the record is unclear as to the exact date, sometime after December 5, 2012, but before December 14, 2012, Respondent informed Mr. Gotwals that the information previously provided in the Seller's Statement was inaccurate and that there were actually more funds available for distribution. Respondent did not inform Mr. Gotwals at that time that he had transferred the money from the estate, but instead, stated Mr. Ed's had caused the discrepancy. On December 14, 2012, Mr. Gotwals filed an objection to the First Final Report and issued subpoenas for the estate bank records and for the Seller's Statement from Mr. Ed's.

¶ 10 The Seller's Statement Mr. Gotwals received from Mr. Ed's as a result of the subpoena reflected a property maintenance charge in the amount of $3,124.26, an amount significantly lower than the amount reflected in the Seller's Statement provided by Respondent. Upon receipt of the actual Seller's Statement from Mr. Ed's, Mr. Gotwals testified he questioned Respondent about the discrepancies, and it became apparent there was something going on. Although Mr. Gotwals testified he didn't know exactly what was going on at that point, Respondent suggested he had made some serious errors.

¶ 11 At some point after providing Mr. Gotwals with the altered Seller's Statement but before January 4, 2014, Respondent called the OBA and set up a meeting with OBA Ethics Counsel to explain what had happened. Upon the advice of the OBA Ethics Counsel, Respondent obtained legal counsel immediately. On January 4, 2013, Respondent and his counsel met with the heirs of the estate and the heirs' counsel to explain there was money missing from the Cox Estate and that Respondent was going to put the money back. On January 10, 2013, Respondent reimbursed the estate $18,249.98, the difference between the fees Respondent previously took from the estate and the $27,500.00 agreed-to fee. Respondent testified at the PRT hearing that he is awaiting a decision from the district court as to whether he was entitled to the $27,500.00 fee per the parties' settlement agreement. If he is not awarded the fee, Respondent testified he has the ability to borrow the funds to reimburse the estate.

¶ 12 On January 17, 2013, Respondent filed an Update to Final Report and Final Account with the court, wherein he advised the court that the parties had “agreed to pay the Personal Representative the sum of $27,500.00 for services rendered,” but that “$18,249.98 above and beyond the agreed fee was erroneously taken out of the Estate account.”⁷ Respondent also stated in the filing that the money had been...