Court Opinion

ID: 9793477
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:48:23.60421+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T08:05:20.808909
License: Public Domain

¶ 1 KAUGER, C.J.
concurring in part and dissenting in part with whom LAVENDER, SIMMS and OPALA, JJ. join:
¶ 2 My concern with the majority opinion is its over-broadness — read literally, the *839opinion stands for the proposition that there must be privity of contract before the filing of a complaint will lead to the imposition of discipline.
¶3 The pivotal point in the majority opinion is the lack of an attorney-client relationship between the complaining party [wife] and the respondent, Lee Stilwell [Stil-well].1 A literal reading of the majority opinion indicates that privity of contract must exist between the attorney and the complainant before discipline will result — a position contrary to Rule 1.3, Rules Governing Disciplinary Proceedings, 5 O.S.1991, Ch. 1, App. 1-A,2 Oklahoma case law,3 and extant jurisprudence.4

. Paragraph 2 of the majority opinion provides in pertinent part:
.. The Trial Panel found that Mrs. Clayton was not represented by Judge Stilwell. At the hearing Mrs. Clayton was asked, ‘And your, opinion, then, back in 1980, did you ever establish an attorney-client relationship with Mr. Stilwell?’ Mrs. Clayton answered, ‘No sir.’ The Bar resists the Trial Panel’s finding on this score but our independent review of the transcript of the hearing before the Trial Panel convinces us that the Trial Panel’s finding that Judge Stilwell represented only Mr. Clayton, and not Mrs. Clayton, was correct."

. Rule 1.3, Rules Governing Disciplinary Proceedings, 5 O.S.1991, Ch. 1, App. 1-A provides:
"The commission by any lawyer of any act contrary to prescribed standards of conduct, whether in the course of his professional capacity, or otherwise, which act would reasonably be found to bring discredit upon the legal profession, shall be grounds for disciplinary action, whether or not the act is a felony or misdemeanor, or a crime at all. Conviction in a criminal proceeding is not a condition precedent to the imposition of discipline."

. State ex rel. Oklahoma Bar Ass’n v. Flanery, 1993 OK 97, 863 P.2d 1146, 1150 [Recognizing that there had been no lawyer-client relationship between the attorney and the injured parties and that all the conduct complained of occurred before the attorney was licensed, the attorney was disbarred for embezzlement of funds from family members.]; State ex rel. Oklahoma Bar Ass’n v. Raskin, 1982 OK 39, 642 P.2d 262, 265 [Recognizing that procedures against a dishonest lawyer need not rest upon the injured party’s complaint and that jurisdiction lies even in causes where the complaint did not originate with the client of the accused attorney.]; State ex rel. Oklahoma Bar Ass’n v. Brandon, 1969 OK 28, 450 P.2d 824, 827 [Conduct occurring before the individual became an attorney — and in which there was no attorney-client relationship — was sufficient to suspend the attorney under disciplinary rules substantially similar to Rule 1.3, Rules Governing Disciplinary Proceedings, 5 O.S.1991, Ch. 1, App. 1-A, see note 2, supra.]. See also, Bradford Securities Processing Serv., Inc. v. Plaza Bank & Trust, 1982 OK 96, 653 P.2d 188, 190 [Whenever circumstances attending situation are such that ordinarily prudent person could reasonably apprehend that, as a natural and probable consequence of his act, another person will be in danger of receiving injury, duty to exercise ordinary care to prevent such injury arises.]. Ultramares Corp. v. Touche, 255 N.Y. 170, 174 N.E. 441 (1931) was cited in Bradford. In so doing, the Court stated:
"... Having determined that privity has no applicability under the law of Oklahoma in the realm of tort, we hold that while the apprehensions expressed in Ultramares may or may not be a telling argument as to whether the harm to a particular plaintiff was foreseeable to the defendant, their significance is relegated to foreseeability as it relates to proximate cause and must be considered only in that light....”
Under the standards announced in Bradford, the respondent knew or should have known that leaving the case in limbo was likely to leave the wife’s status in an uncertain condition and created the likelihood of a bigamous alliance.

.Discipline was imposed in the following cases despite the lack of an attorney-client relationship. Florida Bar v. Schultz, 712 So.2d 386, 388 (1998) [Attorneys may be disciplined for failing to disclose essential matters in business transactions with nonclients where there is no attorney-client relationship.]; Florida Bar v. Calvo, 630 So.2d 548, 549 (Fla.1994) [Attorneys may not be excused from failing to honor obligations to the public at large.]; Louisiana State Bar Ass’n v. Perez, 550 So.2d 188, 190 (La.1989) [Although the case did not involve the attorney-client relationship, attorney was disbarred for withdrawing funds from an account he had been appointed to inventory as a notary public.]; Matter of Grimble, 157 Ariz. 448, 759 P.2d 594, 598 [The lack of an attorney-client relationship will not excuse an attorney from discipline.]; Dowling v. Alabama State Bar, 539 So.2d 149, 153 (Ala.1988), cert. denied, 490 U.S. 1081, 109 S.Ct. 2102, 104 L.Ed.2d 663 (1988) [Public censure of an attorney for distributing misleading campaign materials upheld. The complaint did not come from a client of the attorney but was filed anonymously.]; Matter of Kersting, 151 Ariz. 171, 726 P.2d 587, 591 (1986) [Finding that a lawyer may vio-*840íate his ethical obligations even though there is no breach of contract and that rules of ethical conduct do not apply only in the attorney-client relationship.]; Grievance Administrator v. Nickels, 422 Mich. 254, 373 N.W.2d 528 (1985) [Attorneys may be disciplined for activities unrelated to the practice of law and arising outside the attorney-client relationship.].