Opinion ID: 1775584
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: anthony's money

Text: McLaurin tells an entirely different story from Moyo as to the settlement proceeds. Moyo's version first. Moyo said he paid himself $9,000 out of the first $10,000, and paid McLaurin $1,000 in cash. Why didn't he write her a check for the $1,000? For a lawyer to deal with his client in this manner creates great suspicion, even disbelief. Moyo was dealing with a simple, ignorant woman, and all transactions should have been by checks showing precisely how the money was spent. As it is, he can claim he is right, and this simple woman mistaken in the amount she claimed to have received. Paying in cash suggests conversion for the same reason that commingling of funds does. When a lawyer puts a client's money into his personal account, he can always say that any check he wrote for his personal benefit came from his money in the account, not the client's, and there is no way to actually prove otherwise. Because of this, it is an unethical practice of the most serious order for a lawyer even to mix his client's funds in with his own or, conversely, to use a trust account for personal as well as his clients' transactions. Likewise, as here, by paying the client in cash, the lawyer can allege he paid the money, and it is the client's word against his that he did not. When money comes into a lawyer's hands, part of which is his fee and part of which belongs to the client, it is sleazy and reprehensible for the lawyer to pay the client his part in cash. Next, Moyo received the $12,500 check. He unquestionably paid McLaurin $4,500 by check, but what about the rest? He claims he gave her $5,300, cash again, to pay the medical bills. Why didn't he pay them by check? If he in fact paid her the $5,300 in cash, $2,700 remained to be disbursed. Why wasn't that disbursed at the same time he gave her the $5,300? Apparently he kept the $2,700, which he had on hand when she got in jail. He then decided he was entitled to $2,500 of Anthony's money as a fee for representing her, which he kept. He paid her bondsman the remaining $200 of Anthony's money. The explanation Moyo gave for paying McLaurin in cash is insulting to any tribunal's intelligence. He said she did not want any money to be of record, because that would deprive her of social security or welfare benefits. Yet, as to the one disbursement she was to keep, he wrote a check. The $5,300 was to be spent paying medical bills. The other $2,500 went to him as a fee. Not satisfied with the fleecing he had already given this child, Moyo decided he needed another $1,500 of Anthony's money. By sheer luck, this transaction benefited Anthony, however, because the bank chose to make the loan. After all, with $1,500 of the savings account as collateral, there was no risk to the bank in making Moyo the loan. After Moyo got word of the complaint to the Bar, he repaid the bank. In this manner, at least there was a little more delay in McLaurin's spending her son's money. What, then, do we have from Moyo's own story? Alleged cash disbursements that no rational person can believe, and an admitted conversion of Anthony's funds which he had withheld to pay himself a fee which he considered he deserved for representing McLaurin on criminal charges subsequently dismissed. Apparently the charges were dropped when Moyo repaid the defrauded businesses with Anthony's money. What did this child get out of all this? It is shocking that a poor, simple, ignorant woman as McLaurin, who was confused on some simple facts is yet more credible than Moyo, a member of the bar of this State, as to the disbursements. She testified she only got $500 cash one time, another $500 when she got out of jail, and the next time $4,500. She said Moyo promised to pay the medical bills. This is far more likely, because in the summer of 1986 he gave her a check for $2,000, which if his version of the facts were true, he did not owe. According to his testimony, and that statement he had her sign when she got out of jail, she had long since been paid all she was supposed to receive according to the chancery court order. Also, he promised to pay her another $500, which he had not got around to fulfilling at the time of the hearing in October, 1986. This Court is convinced by the weight of the evidence in this case that Moyo in fact did not pay McLaurin the $5,300 in cash as he claimed, but kept it. Aside from this, from Moyo's own testimony he converted $2,500 of Anthony's money to pay himself a fee, and attempted to get another $1,500 on an unsecured loan. What did Moyo do wrong? 1. He solicited this case in violation of DR 2-103(A), Disciplinary Rules, Code of Professional Responsibility of the Mississippi State Bar. [4] This is a pervasive, iniquitous practice, but disciplinary proceedings for its breach are, regrettably, extremely rare. Of course, a contract entered into between an attorney and a client as a result of the attorney's solicitation is against public policy, and no doubt would be declared void by a court of law. Unfortunately, contracts resulting from solicitation by attorneys do not come to the court's attention unless the attorney has violated some other obligation to his client as happened here. [5] The client is invariably unaware that the attorney's solicitation of the employment is a serious breach of professional ethics. For this violation alone, as a first offense, Moyo should receive a public reprimand. 2. He asked for and secured an unconscionable fee for his services in violation of DR 2-106(A)(B). [6] It is no defense to Moyo that one chancellor allowed this. The Bar made no formal charge against Moyo for this outrageous fee, no doubt under the assumption that because a court allowed it, the Mississippi State Bar could not inquire behind it. We nevertheless consider it in weighing the gravity of Moyo's other misconduct. 3. He kept no records of his disbursements with the exception of one $4,500 check, preferring to disburse all the rest in cash in violation of DR 9-102(A)(B). [7] 4. He converted $2,500 of Anthony's money, which he held in his custody, to his own use to pay himself a fee he set for himself to represent McLaurin on a criminal charge. Aside from the unlawful conversion, there is no record whatever as to its reasonableness, in violation of DR 1-102(A)(3, 4 and 6). [8] Moyo alone decided that. 5. He converted $5,300 which should have been used to pay medical bills to his own use, also in violation of the same Rule. He later paid McLaurin $2,000 of this. 6. He attempted to get another $1,500 of Anthony's money from McLaurin on an unsecured personal loan, in violation of the same Rule. 7. He made no effort whatever to counsel McLaurin, obviously a hopelessly incompetent person to handle her son's money, as to her duties regarding Anthony's money. We have searched this record in vain to find an instance where some adult attempted to consider this boy's future. In this case, everybody had a big party on Anthony's money but him. This was perhaps the one chance for Anthony to escape from the poverty of a Jackson, Mississippi, ghetto. It is now gone. Anthony has been ill-served. It is a lamentable fact that he would have been as well off had there been no court proceeding to settle his claim. We therefore conclude that Moyo, while acting in a representative and fiduciary capacity which he had solicited, deliberately cheated and defrauded his minor client, which conduct was a clear and convincing violation of DR 1-102(A)(3, 4 and 6), for which he should be permanently disbarred. It will therefore be the judgment of this Court that Moyo be permanently disbarred from the practice of law in this State. COMPLAINT TRIBUNAL'S FINDING FOR DISCIPLINARY ACTION AFFIRMED, COMPLAINT TRIBUNAL'S ORDER FOR PUBLIC REPRIMAND REVERSED, AND APPEAL FOR PERMANENT DISBARMENT SUSTAINED. ROY NOBLE LEE, C.J., DAN M. LEE, P.J., and PRATHER, ROBERTSON, SULLIVAN, ANDERSON, GRIFFIN and ZUCCARO, JJ., concur.