Opinion ID: 2604440
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: The Jeanine Rinker Matter

Text: Mrs. Jeanine Rinker employed Mr. Reinmiller on May 30, 1953, to institute a divorce in her behalf, paying him some money at the time to apply to costs and retainer. Later, and before trial, he made a demand for the payment of the balance. Mrs. Rinker, with some difficulty, raised and paid the $226. It is charged that the defendant falsely represented to his client that it was necessary to make such payment of the balance before trial so that he might show the trial judge that such charges had been paid and obtain the judge's receipt therefor and that such procedure was a condition precedent before a decree could be entered. Soon after this money was obtained the case was heard and decree awarded to Mrs. Rinker. Mr. Reinmiller's defense, in essence, is: that Mrs. Rinker is actuated by spite and that her representations are untrue, or because of her imperfect knowledge of English she must have misunderstood him. The client was a French woman who had come to the United States from her native country in 1948 with her American husband, to whom she was married in France. There is no charge that the fees were excessive. The sole question here is whether or not Mr. Reinmiller misrepresented to Mrs. Rinker that it was legally necessary to do as she claims, that is, pay in advance so that Mr. Reinmiller could advise the court that such had been done and secure a receipt from the court before a decree could be entered. The charge appears to us as a bit fantastic. Our reading of the record inclines us to believe that Mrs. Rinker misunderstood Mr. Reinmiller. This possibility arises out of the fact that she had never before been in an American court and was not familiar with the procedures. We note that while laboring under her understanding of what Mr. Reinmiller had said concerning the legal necessity for prepayment of fees, she consulted with many friends who advised her correctly and contra to what she thought Mr. Reinmiller had told her. Notwithstanding, her claim to have been shocked and that her friends were shocked by Mr. Reinmiller's alleged advice, she nevertheless raised the money, returned to him and paid it without protest. Evidently, she had ceased to believe he had misled her and her confidence in him was then unimpaired for she sought no other counsel to finish the divorce suit. We exonerate Mr. Reinmiller on the Rinker count.