Court Opinion

ID: 9789603
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:39:05.375815+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:23.475143
License: Public Domain

Rosellini, J.
(dissenting)—The Disciplinary Board of the Washington State Bar Association, after reviewing the record made before the hearing panel, recommended that the respondent attorney be suspended for a period of 1 year. As the Bar Association points out in its brief, the hearing panel is composed of three members, only one of which is a member of the disciplinary board. The board, on the other hand, consists of nine members, including two laymen, and has the advantage of extensive experience in disciplinary matters.
By characterizing the respondent's conduct in innocuous language, the majority has considerably lightened its impact. I believe the Bar Association's characterization is more appropriate. That body said:
Mr. Caplinger has violated his Oath of Attorney and the Code of Professional Responsibility by allowing his own interests in the financial affairs of his client to interfere with the proper conduct of his duties as an attorney. He has not provided his client with an accounting. He misled a court, a fellow attorney, a mortgage company *838and his own client. He mixed personal and client's funds. He placed a mortgage upon his client's property without advising them he was doing so. He failed to protect his clients' interest by not documenting the understanding concerning the nature of the security interest and by allowing deeds which purported to convey an absolute interest to be filed.
All of this constitutes substantial conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice and contrary to Mr. Cap-linger's Oath of Attorney. Such conduct merits a one year suspension.
The respondent's negligence in failing to properly document his business dealings with his client placed that client in a position where she would have been unable to prove her interest in the property held in the respondent's name. Had he died, his estate would have been the beneficiary and his client the loser. The mere fact that she had suffered no loss—or no provable loss—at the time these proceedings arose is not conclusive of the damage which might naturally flow from such negligent and deceptive documentation. Furthermore, the respondent's failure to keep accurate accounts of the rents received makes it impossible to determine whether the client has received all that she is entitled to from that source. While the respondent has offered a deed to the property, he has not offered an accounting.
The inference that the respondent allowed his personal interest in the property to sway his judgment in the matter of notifying the court, his mortgagee, and his client of conflicting claims is difficult to avoid. This was the inference drawn by the board but evidently rejected by the majority.
By his own conduct in these matters, the respondent violated his oath as an attorney and the Code of Professional Responsibility by engaging in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice, (CPR) DR 1-102(A)(5), by failing to preserve the identity of his client's funds, (CPR) DR 9-102(B)(2), (3) and (4), and by failing to limit his business relations with a client, (CPR) DR 5-104(A).
The fact that others may have been treated more leniently than the circumstances warranted should not *839deter the court from imposing a discipline designed to accomplish the objectives of this proceeding.
The court has repeatedly stated that
the basic and underlying purpose of all attorney disciplinary action—be it censure, reprimand, suspension, or disbarment—is for the protection of the public and to preserve confidence in the legal profession as well as the judicial system.
In re Smith, 83 Wn.2d 659, 663, 521 P.2d 212 (1974).
Conduct such as that of the respondent can result only in the undermining of public confidence in the profession and the judicial system, and the exposure of clients to abuse of the confidence which they repose in their attorneys. However, since this is the respondent's first offense, and since no fraud was found, I agree that a suspension of 1 year is a discipline more harsh than the circumstances require. I would suspend the respondent attorney for a period of 90 days.
Hamilton and Stafford, JJ., concur with Rosellini, J.