Opinion ID: 1258634
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Real Estate Matter A

Text: A married couple owned a condominium as tenants in common in Horry County. The husband died in December 1997, leaving his wife as his only heir. No documents were filed in Horry County to effectuate the transfer of husband's half interest in the condominium to the wife. On July 6, 1998, Respondent closed on the sale of the condominium without discovering or correcting the title defect. Respondent also failed to discover an outstanding tax lien on the property. The deed, which was filed on July 7, 1998, contained an erroneous property description and an incorrect date. Some time shortly after the closing, a nonlawyer assistant in Respondent's office discovered the error in the property description. The assistant prepared a corrective deed showing the correct property description. The assistant had the corrected deed executed and filed without consulting Respondent. The corrective deed contained a number of errors, including the lack of a date for the execution of the corrective deed, incorrect recording and execution dates of the original deed, and an incorrect reference number. In January 2001, Respondent attempted to clear the title. His nonlawyer assistant prepared a second corrective deed, which contained some of the same errors as the first corrective deed, and omitted any reference to the first corrective deed. The second corrective deed was prepared at the direction of Respondent, but without his review or supervision. The subpanel found Respondent violated the following Rules of Professional Conduct found in Rule 407, SCACR: Rule 1.1 (Competence); Rule 1.3 (Diligence); Rule 5.3 (Responsibilities Regarding Nonlawyer Assistants); and Rule 5.5 (Unauthorized Practice of Law). The subpanel also found that Respondent failed to fully cooperate with Disciplinary Counsel's investigation, in violation of Rule 8.1 of the Rules of Professional Conduct because Respondent failed to respond to the written Notice of Full Investigation and failed to produce requested documents to the Attorney to Assist and to the Office of Disciplinary Counsel (ODC). However, the subpanel acknowledged that Respondent did appear for an interview pursuant to Rule 19(c)(4), RLDE, Rule 413, SCACR, and did produce the closing file in response to Disciplinary Counsel's subpoena. The subpanel determined that Respondent is subject to discipline in connection with Real Estate Matter A pursuant to Rules 7(a)(1), 7(a)(3), 7(a)(5), and 7(a)(6) of RLDE, Rule 413, SCACR.