Opinion ID: 1184351
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Additional conduct warranting discipline.

Text: (7) In addition to its finding that petitioner fraudulently submitted claims to insurance companies, the disciplinary board concluded that petitioner breached the strict standards of fair dealing and candor demanded of members of the legal profession in his handling of both the Seide and Martinez matters. Specifically, the disciplinary board adopted the local administrative committee's findings that petitioner (1) endorsed Transnational's checks without the authorization of his clients, (2) negotiated a settlement for Cobarrobas although not retained as his attorney, (3) concluded, without authorization, settlements on behalf of Paramo and Martinez, (4) accepted false acknowledgements by inducing Martinez to sign Paramo's and Cobarrobas' names to documents and (5) failed to secure his clients' authorization for the payment of funds to Dr. Schuchman. Although petitioner disputes the sufficiency of the evidence to support some of these conclusions, in our view the direct testimony of Seide, Martinez and Paramo reviewed above provides adequate support for each of the subsidiary findings. [9] There can be little doubt that such breaches of an attorney's duty to his clients may properly be the subject of disciplinary action. (See, e.g., Rules of Professional Conduct, rule 9 [duty to account for disbursement of clients' funds]; Bodisco v. State Bar (1962) 58 Cal.2d 495 [24 Cal. Rptr. 835, 374 P.2d 803] [unauthorized settlement agreement]; McKinney v. State Bar (1964) 62 Cal.2d 194 [41 Cal. Rptr. 665, 397 P.2d 425]; Hallinan v. State Bar (1948) 33 Cal.2d 246 [200 P.2d 787].) (8) We agree, however, with petitioner's contention that there is insufficient evidence to support the board's additional finding that petitioner knowingly submitted false evidence to the local administrative committee by permitting the introduction of the falsified X-ray log. (See fn. 5 and accompanying text, supra. ) Petitioner did not submit the X-ray log into evidence; instead the log was produced at the hearing pursuant to the committee's own request that Dr. Schuchman produce any evidence he could find. Although Dr. Schuchman testified that petitioner, in order to prepare for the disciplinary proceedings, had taken possession of some of the medical center's records, he did not specifically testify that petitioner ever had possession of, or even knew about, the X-ray log. Under these circumstances, a reasonable inference arises that petitioner did not know or participate in the submission of the false log to the committee. Because of the absence of any evidence in the record indicating that petitioner had possession or knowledge of the log, we believe that the finding of petitioner's participation in the submission of misleading evidence cannot be sustained.