Opinion ID: 1742730
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Knapp Matter

Text: In July of 1999, Julie Knapp was named the administrator of her father's estate. D'Angelo was designated as the attorney for the estate. D'Angelo petitioned the court to sell a piece of estate property. The court set a hearing and issued an order indicating that all interested parties were to receive notice of the hearing and that proof of mailing notice was to be on file before the time of the hearing. D'Angelo then prepared a decree stating that notice had been given to all interested parties, even though D'Angelo had never filed a proof of notice to the interested parties. D'Angelo then secured a judge's signature to a decree approving the sale of the property. After D'Angelo's license to practice law was suspended in November of 2000, the court appointed a trustee to review the case file. The trustee discovered that D'Angelo took approximately $5426.74 in fees from the estate. The fees included $2500 for services in connection with the sale of the decedent's residence, $2000 for Estate Legal Fees, and $926.74 for representing Julie Knapp in a dissolution of marriage action. D'Angelo also deposited an additional $2796.65 from the proceeds of the auction of the estate's personal property into his trust account. This money was subsequently withdrawn and D'Angelo is unable to explain where the money is now. Under Iowa law, a lawyer taking a fee for any estate proceeding must first obtain a court order authorizing the fee. See Iowa Code §§ 633.197-.198 (1997) (authorizing payment of reasonable fees as may be determined by the court). D'Angelo received no such authorization. In addition, the maximum fee for ordinary services for a $45,000 estate would have been only about $1000. The final report prepared by D'Angelo lacked pertinent documents. The report stated an accounting of receipts and disbursements was attached, but no such accounting was attached to the report. The final report also asserts that an income tax certificate of acquittance was on file and that all statutory requirements pertaining to taxes were on file. However, neither the Iowa inheritance tax clearance nor the income tax certificate were actually on file. The final report presented by Knapp and prepared by D'Angelo also did not include an accounting nor a waiver of accounting by the interested parties. See id. § 633.477(9). D'Angelo did not respond to the Board's complaint concerning these charges for nearly a year.