Cleveland Bar Ass'n v. Mitchell

118 Ohio St. 3d 98
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 23, 2008
DocketNo. 2007-1581
StatusPublished

This text of 118 Ohio St. 3d 98 (Cleveland Bar Ass'n v. Mitchell) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cleveland Bar Ass'n v. Mitchell, 118 Ohio St. 3d 98 (Ohio 2008).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

{¶ 1} Respondent, Luann Mitchell of Cleveland, Ohio, Attorney Registration No. 0007205, was admitted to the practice of law in Ohio in 1983.

{¶ 2} The Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline recommends that we suspend respondent’s license to practice for 18 months, staying the last 12 months on conditions, based on findings that she tried to obtain Medicaid reimbursement for a client’s unsubstantiated health-care expenses, pursued frivolous legal actions, and refused to provide her office or residence address as required for attorney registration. We agree that respondent committed profes[99]*99sional misconduct as found by the board and that an 18-month suspension, with 12 months stayed on conditions to improve her methods of practice, is appropriate.

{¶ 3} Relator, Cleveland Bar Association, charged respondent in a three-count complaint with multiple violations of the Code of Professional Responsibility and with disobeying the registration requirements of Gov.Bar R. VI. A panel of the board heard the case, making findings of misconduct and recommending the 18-month suspension and conditional 12-month stay. The board adopted the panel’s findings and recommended sanction, adding as conditions of the stay that respondent comply with an underlying court order to pay sanctions and also properly register as an attorney.

{¶ 4} Respondent has filed three objections but developed only two of her arguments enough to warrant disposition. Objections II and III challenge the validity of sanctions ordered against respondent by the Cuyahoga County Probate Court in litigation underlying the board’s report. There, the probate court determined that respondent had attempted to thwart through frivolous legal action a private company’s efforts to verify and pay expenses for which respondent had claimed Medicaid reimbursement. Respondent cites no authority for this collateral attack on the probate court proceedings. The objections are therefore overruled.

Misconduct

Counts I and II — Respondent Violated Disciplinary Rules Prohibiting Dishonesty and Frivolous Lawsuits.

{¶ 5} Respondent claims to oversee the care of senior citizens on a volunteer basis. She described the assistance she provides this way:

{¶ 6} “I keep a stable of 23 seniors that I’m able to assist, and that’s based on the number of adult day workers and home health aides that I have available to me. I would never take more than the 23, because I could not provide them with quality. So I kept them then, and I still have them now. And when they die off, I replace them; and I normally keep a stable of about 23 of them.”

{¶ 7} The Cuyahoga County Probate Court appointed respondent as guardian of the person and estate of Bertha L. Washington. As of 1999, Washington was over 90 years old and, as a housebound Medicaid recipient, enrolled in Ohio’s PASSPORT program. According to the Western Reserve Area Agency on Aging (“WRAAA”), a private company then responsible for administering the program, PASSPORT regulations afforded Washington health-care benefits only until she became confined to a nursing home or rehabilitation facility.

{¶ 8} Washington was hospitalized during October 1999. In early November of that year, she was transferred to a rehabilitation facility, with her discharge [100]*100anticipated in early February 2000. In mid-December 1999, WRAAA terminated Washington’s enrollment in PASSPORT as a result of her rehabilitative confinement.

Respondent Wins Reimbursement for Her Client

{¶ 9} Respondent appealed WRAAA’s decision to disenroll Washington to the then Ohio Department of Human Services (“ODHS”). A state hearing officer determined that the WRAAA had lawfully terminated Washington from the program, but cautioned WRAAA that once a PASSPORT recipient had filed a timely appeal, regulations precluded WRAAA from terminating benefits until the state hearing officer’s decision. On further appeal, ODHS affirmed the finding of lawful termination.

{¶ 10} Respondent then initiated a new administrative appeal to obtain the reimbursement to which the hearing officer had implied her client was entitled. She also asserted that her client had been refused reenrollment in PASSPORT. In June 2000, another hearing officer upheld the refusal of reenrollment but ordered WRAAA to reimburse Washington at “the previous level” for the healthcare expenses she paid from February 5, 2000, the date she was discharged from rehabilitative care, until March 28, 2000, the date of the first hearing officer’s decision.

The Legal Proceedings Begin

{¶ 11} WRAAA accepted the finding that it had improperly terminated services to Washington for February through March 2000, and beginning in July 2000, WRAAA attempted to comply with the reimbursement order. WRAAA first wrote to respondent, asking her to document the providers and cost of services for which Washington had paid during the relevant period. Respondent did not reply.

{¶ 12} Respondent would later repeatedly ignore WRAAA’s attempts to verify her client’s health-care expenses and impede the reimbursement process by filing a series of legal actions. She filed with the probate court in April 2001 an “Ex-Parte Motion to Enforce Judgment against [WRAAA],” claiming $31,527 in reimbursable expenses. She did not initially serve WRAAA with notice of this filing. On WRAAA’s motion, that court ultimately dismissed respondent’s action in January 2002, citing lack of jurisdiction. Respondent did not appeal.

{¶ 13} In May 2001, an attorney for WRAAA wrote to respondent, again asking her to verify Washington’s health-care providers and the cost of their services. He explained that WRAAA needed to determine whether the services were like those of PASSPORT and within the scope of Washington’s service plan of care. Respondent did not reply.

[101]*101{¶ 14} In August 2001, the probate court attempted to facilitate Washington’s reimbursement. During one proceeding, respondent told a magistrate that she had sent information sufficient to verify Washington’s expenses to WRAAA’s attorney, an assertion that WRAAA attorney Dale A. Nowak denied. The magistrate instructed respondent to produce the requested information.

{¶ 15} Several days after this hearing, Nowak wrote to respondent, asking her to “redouble” efforts to document Washington’s reimbursable health-care expenses. In mid-November 2001, the parties appeared again before the magistrate, and respondent produced a one-page document listing expenditures of $29,577. She gave no receipts or other records to corroborate the expenses, however, or even the names of the providers.

{¶ 16} Nowak advised the magistrate that respondent’s list of expenditures did not satisfy state reimbursement standards. To make sure, the magistrate told WRAAA to submit respondent’s list of expenditures to the Ohio Department of Aging, the agency responsible for approving reimbursement. As Nowak had anticipated, that agency rejected the list as insufficient. Nowak wrote two more letters that November, asking respondent to substantiate Washington’s healthcare expenditures. She did not.

Respondent’s Second Lawsuit

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Related

Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Fowerbaugh
1995 Ohio 261 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1995)
Mitchell v. W. Res. Agency, Unpublished Decision (5-18-2006)
2006 Ohio 2475 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 2006)
Office of Disciplinary Counsel v. Pollock
100 Ohio St. 3d 280 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2003)
Disciplinary Counsel v. Beeler
105 Ohio St. 3d 188 (Ohio Supreme Court, 2005)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
118 Ohio St. 3d 98, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cleveland-bar-assn-v-mitchell-ohio-2008.