Court Opinion

ID: 9773376
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:43:43.502568+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:32:45.355904
License: Public Domain

Steele Hays, Justice, dissenting. There is nothing to be gained by remanding this case. In the first place, we review the record de novo and do not reverse the findings of the committee unless they are clearly erroneous. Muhammed v. Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct, 291 Ark. 29, 722 S.W.2d 282 (1987). Moreover, this case was the subject of a lengthy hearing and a full inquiry by the committee, and neither side suggested the need for additional proof. The charges by Mr. and Mrs. Haffelder against Mr. Sam Sexton, Jr., were defended entirely on the contention that Mr. Sexton and Mr. and Mrs. Haffelder were at no time in an attorney-client relationship. The hearing was focused on that issue alone. The argument that these events occurred before the effective date of the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, while mentioned in passing at the commencement of the hearing, was otherwise ignored. There was no proof whatever that the actions by Mr. Sexton of which the Haffelders complained were not improper prior to the adoption of the Model Rules. Moreover, essentially the same conduct is prohibited under the Code of Professional Responsibility. See DR 5-104(A). Certainly there was no attempt by Mr. Sexton to show that he complied with either rule by informing the Haffelders about the transaction. There is no testimony that Mr. Sexton met the requirement of “full disclosure” to the Haffelders as to the pros and cons of the transaction. Mr. Sexton testified that he thought it was a good investment for them and that Mr. Haffelder regarded it as “a favor” by Mr. Sexton. There is no mention of any risk involved, but it is implicit in Mr. Sexton’s account of the transaction, in the form of a loan, that it was patently usurious, in that the $20,000 was to be repaid at $ 1,000 a month for forty months. There seems to have been no disclosure of that material fact. It is the appellant’s duty to demonstrate error in the proceedings below and to present a record for which it can be determined on review that error occurred. S.D. Leasing, Inc. v. RNF Corp., 278 Ark. 530, 647 S.W.2d 447 (1983); Kimery v. Schockley, 226 Ark. 437, 290 S.W.2d 442 (1956). This he has failed to do. As to whether Mr. Sexton and Mr. and Mrs. Haffelder stood in an attorney-client relationship, only one conclusion is possible. The proof is overwhelming. Mrs. Haffelder, acting for her husband while he was hospitalized from his injuries, testified that she called the Sexton firm, that she spoke with Mr. Sexton and he agreed to represent them. Often thereafter she and her husband would meet with Mr. James Robb or Mr. Bennett Nolan, younger lawyers with the firm, but they always considered Mr. Sexton their lawyer and always asked first to meet with him. Mr. Haffelder’s testimony corroborated Mrs. Haffelder’s. While Mr. Sexton denied that he ever spoke with Mrs. Haffelder, the finding of the committee was clearly to the contrary. If any doubt of Mr. Sexton’s status were to remain, the documentary evidence dispels it entirely. When the discovery deposition of Mrs. Nancy Clower, the opposing litigant, was taken, Mr. Sexton appeared as attorney for the Haffelder’s, and it was he who did the questioning. Much of the correspondence between the Sexton firm and Mr. Hugh Hardin, attorney for the Clowers’s insurance carrier, was between Mr. Sexton and Mr. Hardin. Of eleven items of correspondence flowing from Mr. Hardin, seven were addressed to Mr. Sexton, three to Mr. James Robb and none to Mr. Nolan, whom Mr. Sexton contends was “lead” counsel. In one letter to Mr. Sexton, Mr. Hardin states, “In your representation of this young man” (referring to Mr. Haffelder) and proceeds to ask for income tax records. There is correspondence between Mr. Walter Niblock, who represented Mrs. Clower individually, to the carrier, urging settlement within the policy limits, and stressing Mr. Sexton’s effectiveness in trial. This letter assumes that Mr. Sexton alone is representing the Haff elders. There are several letters from Mr. Sexton proposing settlement and evidencing an intimate knowledge of the case. The settlement itself, according to Mr. Hardin’s records, was reached between Mr. Hardin and Mr. Sexton. The compromise settlement agreement, a detailed document, was approved by Mr. Sexton, as “attorney for the Haff elders,” the settlement check of $90,000 was endorsed by Mr. Sexton, and the joint order of dismissal of the cause with prejudice was approved by Mr. Sexton and Mr. Hardin, and it was Mr. Sexton who met with the Haffelders at the settlement conference. Lastly, it should be noted that when Mr. and Mrs. Haffelder sued Mr. Sexton some two years later, requests for admissions were served on Mr. Sexton, the first of which was a request that he admit an attorney-client relationship had existed with the Haffelders. This request was never denied. It is true that Mr. James Robb and Mr. Bennett Nolan of the Sexton firm, testified that Mr. Sexton never represented the Haffelders, that they retained Mr. Nolan to represent them and he brought Mr. Robb into the case, and because they were younger, they were merely drawing on Mr. Sexton’s experience and prestige. But even if Mr. Sexton were not expressly retained by the Haffelders, by assuming an active, high-profile role in their behalf, Mr. Sexton gave the Haffelders every right to assume that an attorney-client relationship existed. The relationship is not dependent on an express agreement, it may be implied on the part of an attorney who acts in behalf of his client in pursuance of a request by the latter. Hirsch Bros. & Co. v. R. E. Kennington Co., 124 So. 344 (Miss. S. Ct. 1929); 88 A.L.R. 1; Corpus Juris Secundum, Vol. 7A, § 169, p. 250. I respectfully submit on this record the committee should be affirmed. Glaze, J., joins this dissent.