Opinion ID: 4537103
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mackey Learns of the Stock’s Value

Text: While working to close down what remained of the partnership’s practice in late 2002, Viar’s longtime assistant, Mary Workman, came across documents relating to the Trigon stock. She contacted Mackey, who traveled to the office to pick up copies of the documents including Viar’s letters with National City Bank. A few weeks later, Mackey called Workman to ask if she 2 had access to his former partners’ death certificates. She did not, and Mackey did not attempt to contact the executors of his former partners’ estates regarding the certificates or to let them know about the stock. During this same period, Mackey changed the mailing address for Dodson, Pence, Viar, Woodrum & Mackey to his residential address. Following Viar’s death, his former associate, Michael Quinn, helped Mrs. Viar with various tax matters relating to her late husband’s estate. In doing so, Quinn came across Viar’s 2002 letter to National City Bank regarding the Trigon stock. He did not, however, find the letter from the bank to Viar confirming the value of the stock and so did not know how much it was worth at the time. Quinn reached out to Mackey to let him know he was helping Mrs. Viar, and they discussed the stock “on a couple of occasions” over the following months. In October 2003, Mackey sent Quinn a one-line email stating: “The Replacement Fee for Lost Share Certificate(s) is $2.07 per share, which for 683 shares is $1,413.81.” Despite knowing the approximate value of the stock at the time, Mackey did not share that information with Quinn. During an in-person encounter in late 2003, Quinn again asked about the stock. Mackey told him: “I have looked into it. There is not enough money involved.” Quinn understood this remark—which Mackey later denied making—as meaning that “the stock had no value, and should really have been of no financial interest to Mrs. Viar.” Quinn relayed Mackey’s statements to Mrs. Viar, telling her that Mackey said “there wasn’t enough there to bother with.” Based on these statements, the Viar estate made no efforts to collect the stock. Quinn acknowledged that he had enough information to look into the stock value himself, but he did not because “[he] trusted Mr. Mackey” and believed Mackey was trying to help a widow of a former partner just like he was. Quinn did not contact the Dodson or 3 Pence estates regarding the stock or Mackey’s statements, although he later acknowledged that had he known the value of the stock at the time, he would have informed the other estates.