Opinion ID: 1222121
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: the jesser matter

Text: The Discipline Committee reached the same conclusion in regard to the fourth matter. The complaint against Depew alleged that in the fall of 1971, George D. Jesser and Gerald W. Pickett formed a partnership to purchase and farm agricultural land. Jesser allegedly represented to Pickett that he had paid $11,000 down in cash on a certain piece of property and that Pickett would need to contribute an additional $4,000 to fulfill the $15,000 down payment. Pickett paid this $4,000 and advanced an additional $3,500 to Jesser to supposedly even their respective cash outlays at $7,500 each. Jesser, however, had actually paid only $1,000 down. This was not brought to Pickett's attention until some two years later during the trial of an accounting suit between the two partners. The district court, in its amended memorandum decision in that case, found that Jesser owed a fiduciary duty toward his partner, Pickett, and that his attempts to take advantage of Pickett with book entries indicating this capital account credit to be $10,000 greater than his actual contributions constituted fraud of the most perfidious type. The complaint further alleged that Depew, who represented Jesser in the accounting suit, became aware of the fact that Jesser had paid only $1,000 of the $11,000 in cash sometime prior to the accounting trial, in December of 1974 or January of 1975. The prosecution maintained that Depew's failure to reveal this discrepancy to either Pickett or the court constitutes a violation of DR 7-102(A)(3), (4), (5), (6) and (7) and 102(B)(1) of the Code of Professional Responsibility. [4] The Discipline Committee, however, concluded that it was not clear from the record whether Depew became aware of this discrepancy before or after it was divulged at trial and that there was therefore no basis for disciplinary action in this matter.