Court Opinion

ID: 9794622
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 03:08:40.908691+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:18:23.581399
License: Public Domain

Brachtenbach, J.
I dissent. Reduced to the simple facts, an attorney took a ring, which was accompanied by a written appraisal indicating a value of $24,230, as security for a nonrefundable $500 fee. He did not give a receipt. Shortly thereafter he was notified that he was not retained and would be paid $500 cash for return of the security ring. Almost 2 years later he still had not told his client that he had lost the ring 3 weeks after he received it. He failed to respond to a written request for its return. He failed to return phone calls about its return.
While he may have sometimes kept it in a place of safekeeping, he also took it home on more than one occasion, carried it in his pocket while traveling about, going to a tavern and sleeping on his davenport. That hardly comports with compliance with CPR DR 9-102(B)(2) which requires identification, labeling and placing in a safe-deposit or other place of safekeeping.
His understanding of professional responsibility is best illustrated by the fact that he notified his insurance carrier of the loss but not his client. He even testified that he probably put off going to see the former client in jail be cause "he doesn't have any use for the property essentially. " He advised the bar association that he was starting a declaratory judgment action against his insurance carrier which he never did. His final lame excuse was that he expected to be contacted by his former client's lawyer *695about the ring.
Such gross misconduct merits more than a reprimand. I would adopt the 60-day suspension recommended by the hearing officer and adopted unanimously by the Disciplinary Board.
Stafford, J., concurs with Brachtenbach, J.