Opinion ID: 1959580
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: National Head & Neck

Text: National Head & Neck (NHN), a partnership, was another of Tomaino's clients. His friend, Dennis Buchman (Buchman), was one of the partners. A dispute arose between the partners which was ultimately settled in early 1991. Part of the settlement agreement was that Buchman would pay up to $10,000 of outstanding legal bills from W & G for services rendered to NHN in connection with the dispute. In February Buchman issued his check for $5,000 payable to the order of Mark Tomaino, Esq. (for Nat'l Head, Neck & Lowell Weiner, DDS). Tomaino endorsed this check over to Legg Mason for credit to his personal account. In March Buchman issued a second check in the amount of $5,000 payable to the order of Mark Tomaino, Esq. (National Head/Neck). Tomaino either cashed this check or deposited it to his personal account. Judge Angeletti found that there were no outstanding bills from W & G to NHN. Tomaino testified that he intended to determine the fees owed by NHN to W & G at the end of March and that he failed to do so, characterizing his failure as gross negligence. Judge Angeletti's finding of violation of BOP § 10-306 is supported, for the same reasons previously assigned. The NHN transaction is distinguishable from the other violations in one respect. W & G did not discover this violation as part of its investigation prompted by the GeneSys suit. Tomaino disclosed it in connection with his responses to the investigation.