Florida Bar v. Wolf

605 So. 2d 461, 17 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 597, 1992 Fla. LEXIS 1619, 1992 WL 236209
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedSeptember 24, 1992
DocketNo. 76797
StatusPublished

This text of 605 So. 2d 461 (Florida Bar v. Wolf) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Florida Bar v. Wolf, 605 So. 2d 461, 17 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 597, 1992 Fla. LEXIS 1619, 1992 WL 236209 (Fla. 1992).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

We have for review a referee’s report on complaint of The Florida Bar. We have [462]*462jurisdiction. Art. V, § 15, Fla. Const. We approve the report.

In his lengthy and detailed report, the referee made the following findings of fact as to the allegations made in the Bar’s complaint:

AS TO COUNT I
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2. On December 16, 1982, respondent was appointed by the Circuit Court, Seventeenth Judicial Circuit, Broward County, Florida, in case number 82-3869, personal representative of the estate of John Francis Holbrook, deceased.
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9. On May 2, 1985, the probate court issued an order discharging respondent as personal representative and releasing the surety on her bond on the basis of respondent’s final accounting and the report of distribution filed by respondent which report was predicated upon such final accounting.
10. In truth and in fact, the final accounting filed by respondent does not constitute a true return of all monies received and paid out by respondent as personal representative during the period embraced by the accounting, viz., July 19, 1982, through January 16, 1985.
11. Estate check number 205 represented by respondent as “void” as recited in paragraph 7 of the complaint in this cause, was in fact, issued by respondent on or about July 18, 1984, in the sum of $3,500.00 payable to “Barbara Wolf Trust”....
12. On or about July 18,1984, respondent issued her client trust account check number 809 in the sum of $3,500.00 payable to herself which check respondent deposited to her operating account the same date.
13. Respondent thereafter expended the $3,500.00 from her operating account applying the same to purposes having no connection or nexus to decedent’s estate.
14. Estate check number 206 represented by respondent as “void” as recited in paragraph 7 of the complaint in this cause, was in fact, issued by respondent on or about July 10, 1984, in the sum of $10,000.00 payable to “Barbara Wolf Trust”....
15. On or about July 10,1984, respondent issued her client trust account check number 806 in the sum of $9,000.00 payable to herself and deposited the same on the same date to her operating account.
16. Respondent thereafter expended the $9,000.00 from her operating account and the balance of estate fund in the sum of $1,000.00 remaining in her client trust account to purposes having no connection or nexus to decedent’s estate.
17. On or about October 22, 1984, respondent deposited to her client trust account the sum of $400.00 representing an I.R.S. refund to decedent’s estate.
18. Respondent thereafter expended the $400.00 from her client account to purposes having no connection or nexus to decedent’s estate.
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AS TO COUNT II
20. On or about February 13, 1984, respondent received and deposited to her client trust account the sum of $5,000.00 which sum was entrusted to respondent for the specific purpose of application to the purchase of certain property, the transaction designated by respondent as “Nassr/Klingerman”.
21. By June 30, 1984, respondent had issued checks from her client trust account, the total of which exceeded her client trust account balance to the extent of $918.22, with no expenditure or disbursement having any connection or nexus to the Nassr/Klingerman transaction.
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24. During July, 1984, respondent disbursed a total of $71,199.29 on account for the Nassr/Klingerman transaction, or, $1,701.63 more than the amount held by respondent in her client trust account for the specific purpose of application to the Nassr/Klingerman transaction.
AS TO COUNT III
25. On November 6, 1984, respondent received and deposited to her client trust [463]*463account the sum of $80,426.82 for the specific purpose of application to a transaction designated by respondent as [“SWKO”].
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27. On November 29, 1984, when check number 1001 in the sum of $48,-228.61 was presented for payment, it was dishonored due to insufficient funds in respondent’s client trust account which, on that date, had a balance of $41,780.14, or, a shortage in respondent’s client trust account liability in the SWKO transaction to the extent of $6,448.47.
AS TO COUNT IV
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29. During the period from October 1, 1984, through October 15, 1984, in addition to the balance of $1,576.52, as aforesaid, respondent received from certain land trusts sums totaling $24,736.01, which sums she deposited to her client trust account.
30. On October 15, 1984, respondent issued her client trust account check 930 in the sum of $7,151.54 payable to the John Watkins Trust identifying such payment as pertaining to “Settlement of Claypool,” a transaction having no connection or nexus to the land trusts underlying the $24,736.01 receipts in paragraph 29 of these findings.
AS TO COUNT V
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33. On August 27, 1984, respondent withdrew $3,300.00 from the Nemetz trust account and deposited the same to her non-interest bearing client trust account, which, prior to such deposit, had a balance in the sum of $938.42.
34. Respondent thereafter issued [a number of checks totalling $3,490.00] from her client trust account....
35. None of the [issued checks] had any connection or nexus to the Nemetz transaction.

Based on these findings, the referee determined that the allegations in Count IV were not sufficiently proved and recommended that Wolf be found not guilty on that count. The referee further determined that allegations in other counts were sufficiently proved and recommended that Wolf be found guilty of violating the following provisions of the Rules of Discipline under the Integration Rule of The Florida Bar:1 Rule 11.02(3)(a) (commission of an act contrary to honesty, justice or good morals), and Rule 11.02(4) (money entrusted for a particular purpose must be used for that purpose only). The referee recommended that Wolf be found guilty of violating the following provisions of the Code of Professional Responsibility: Disciplinary Rule 1-102(A)(4) (conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation), Disciplinary Rule 7-102(A)(3) (not conceal or knowingly fail to disclose that which by law she is required to reveal), and Disciplinary Rule 7-102(A)(5) (not knowingly make a false statement of law or fact).

Prior to recommending discipline, the referee noted that Wolf had been publicly reprimanded and placed on three years’ probation by this Court in 1986 for violating Florida’s security laws concerning the same trusts in issue here. The Florida Bar v. Wolf,

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Related

Florida Bar v. Wolf
492 So. 2d 1329 (Supreme Court of Florida, 1986)

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Bluebook (online)
605 So. 2d 461, 17 Fla. L. Weekly Supp. 597, 1992 Fla. LEXIS 1619, 1992 WL 236209, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/florida-bar-v-wolf-fla-1992.