Opinion ID: 1899541
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Count VThe Myrick Matter

Text: In December 2001, Quintina Mary Myrick and her boyfriend were involved in a motorcycle accident. Both sustained injuries in the accident, and Ms. Myrick, who is legally blind, had to undergo surgery. In February 2002, Ms. Myrick met with respondent to discuss her legal rights pertaining to the accident. Ms. Myrick's neighbor, Barbara Roberts, accompanied her to respondent's office for the consultation. After a brief discussion of perhaps ten minutes, during which Ms. Myrick emphasized that she had not yet decided whether to retain the services of a lawyer, Ms. Myrick and Ms. Roberts signed what they believed to be a registration form and left respondent's office. Ms. Myrick had no further contact with respondent after the meeting, and with the assistance of her boyfriend, she began making efforts to settle her personal injury claim with State Farm Insurance Company. On October 23, 2002, respondent sent a letter to State Farm's adjuster offering to settle Ms. Myrick's claim for $15,942, of which $3,942 represented medical expenses and $12,000 represented damages for pain and suffering. Ms. Myrick learned of this settlement offer from State Farm's adjuster in November 2002. When Ms. Myrick confronted respondent, he presented her with a copy of the document that she and Ms. Roberts had signed at the meeting in February. The document was not a registration form, as Ms. Myrick had been led to believe, but was in fact a contingent fee contract. The contract had been notarized by respondent's son, Spencer Calahan, who was not present in the office on the day Ms. Myrick consulted with respondent. [12] Ms. Myrick denied that she ever retained respondent or that she had knowingly signed a contract for legal services, but she discharged him from performing any additional work on her behalf by letter dated November 13, 2002. On November 25, 2002, Ms. Myrick negotiated a settlement of her claim with State Farm for $24,000 in damages and more than $22,000 in medical expenses, which State Farm paid directly to the providers. State Farm included respondent as a payee on the $24,000 settlement check, which was delivered to Ms. Myrick. However, Ms. Myrick refused to negotiate the check until respondent explained what fee he intended to charge. On December 23, 2002, State Farm reissued Ms. Myrick's settlement check at respondent's request and stopped payment on the first check. The replacement check was delivered to respondent. Respondent endorsed the $24,000 replacement check with both his signature and that of Ms. Myrick and deposited it into his client trust account. In February 2003, Ms. Myrick filed a complaint against respondent with the ODC. In May 2003, respondent provoked a concursus proceeding and deposited the sum of $24,000 into the registry of the court. P. Charles Calahan v. Quintina Mary Myrick, No.2003-2313 on the docket of the 15th Judicial District Court for the Parish of Lafayette. In his petition, respondent alleged that he was entitled to 37½% of the $24,000 settlement with State Farm pursuant to his contingency fee contract with Ms. Myrick. [13] Following a trial in May 2004, the trial court found that the contingency fee contract was not enforceable. The court dismissed the concursus and ordered that all of the settlement proceeds be turned over to Ms. Myrick. The court also awarded Ms. Myrick $5,000 in damages and $5,000 in attorney's fees for respondent's conduct in connection with the matter, which the trial judge characterized as nothing short of fraud. In its formal charges, the ODC alleged that respondent's conduct violated Rules 8.4(a), 8.4(c), and 8.4(d) of the Rules of Professional Conduct. Respondent answered the formal charges and denied any misconduct. At the hearing on the formal charges, Ms. Myrick testified that she treated with Dr. Adel Malahmeh for the injuries she sustained in the motorcycle accident. After Dr. Malahmeh recommended respondent to Ms. Myrick many times, she and her neighbor, Ms. Roberts, met respondent at his office on a Saturday morning in February 2002 for a consultation. No one else was present at the office during the meeting. Ms. Myrick said that she definitely did not hire respondent at this meeting, and told him that she would call him in the event she decided to do so. Respondent gave Ms. Myrick a paper to sign and assured her it was not a contract, but it's just to let me know that you came by. Not able to read the paper, but thinking it was only a sign-in sheet, Ms. Myrick signed the document. Ms. Myrick had no further contact with respondent until November, when she found out that he had sent a letter to State Farm's adjuster asking to settle her claim. Ms. Myrick then sent respondent a letter telling him that he was not to perform any other work for her, in the event he thought that she had hired him. Respondent later received a settlement check for Ms. Myrick, which she refused to negotiate because first of all, he wasn't representing me; and second, he didn't explain nothing. He didn't explain his fees, didn't write nothing down for us. It was just wrong. Barbara Roberts testified that she brought Ms. Myrick to respondent's office for a consultation. No one else was present at the office during the meeting. Ms. Roberts could not recall any conversation between Ms. Myrick and respondent about a form to be signed by Ms. Myrick, but Ms. Roberts recalled that she signed a document as a witness. Ms. Roberts did not know what she was signing and did not read the form before she signed it. Ms. Roberts testified that she heard Ms. Myrick tell respondent that she was not hiring him and that he was not to take any action on her behalf unless she contacted him. Attorney Edward Landry agreed to represent Ms. Myrick in the concursus proceeding. Mr. Landry filed responsive pleadings on Ms. Myrick's behalf and reconvened against respondent for misrepresentation and fraud. At trial, the contingent fee agreement signed by Ms. Myrick and witnessed by Ms. Roberts was introduced into evidence. The agreement was also signed by Spencer Calahan, respondent's son, as notary. It was not disputed that Spencer Calahan was not present when the contract was signed, but respondent claimed that the only reason Spencer Calahan signed the contract was to authenticate respondent's signature so that the contract could be recorded in the public records. Respondent also claimed that his son had executed an affidavit to that effect which was filed into the public records along with the contingent fee contract. After hearing this testimony, Mr. Landry went to the courthouse in New Iberia and examined the public records. Mr. Landry found no affidavit attached to the recorded contingent fee contract. Mr. Landry also discovered that the recorded contingent fee contract bears the signature of two witnesses, while the contract respondent provided to Ms. Myrick bears the signature of only one witness, Ms. Roberts. [14] The trial court ultimately ordered that all the money in the concursus proceeding with interest be immediately turned over to Ms. Myrick, and ruled in Ms. Myrick's favor on the fraud allegation, awarding $5,000 in damages and $5,000 in attorney's fees, plus costs. In his testimony, respondent stated that Ms. Myrick did, in fact, retain him to represent her in connection with her personal injury claim and that she fully understood the contingent fee contract. Respondent testified that he sent the settlement demand to State Farm because the prescription date was approaching and he could not reach Ms. Myrick to talk with her about the claim. He admitted that he did not discuss the settlement demand with Ms. Myrick before he made it, and that the demand grossly understated Ms. Myrick's medical expenses. Respondent also claimed that after the settlement check was issued, Ms. Myrick told him that her boyfriend had stolen the check and asked that the check be reissued. [15] Respondent complied with these instructions, but Ms. Myrick's boyfriend would not let her endorse the replacement check, so respondent deposited the check into his client trust account pursuant to the contract that I believed to be valid. Respondent testified that he subsequently tried to discuss the matter with Ms. Myrick and to tell her I wasn't interested in a fee, but she refused to return the calls, so respondent deposited the check into the registry of the court.