Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission v. Simes

2009 Ark. 543, 354 S.W.3d 72, 2009 Ark. LEXIS 707
Supreme Court of Arkansas·Decided November 5, 2009·No. 09-443·Published·Cited by 10 cases

Opinions

ROBERT L. BROWN, Justice.

13 The Judicial Discipline and Disability Commission (“the Commission”) recommends that this court permanently remove Judge L.T. Simes from the bench without the possibility of returning to that position by election or appointment. The Commission bases this recommendation on its findings that Judge Simes violated (1) Canon 4(G) of the Code of Judicial Conduct by engaging in the practice of law while he was a circuit judge; (2) Canon 4(E) by serving as a fiduciary of an estate of someone other than a family member; and (8) Canon 2 by failing to avoid impropriety or the appearance of impropriety. We hold that the findings of the Commission are not clearly erroneous, but we reject the recommendation of removal. We suspend Judge Simes from the bench, without pay, until the end of his current term, which is December 31, 2010. We further deny Judge Simes’s motion to strike extraneous material from the record.

_|The facts are these. On January 14, 1976, L.T. Simes filed a petition as the attorney of Lazora Corbin to have an administrator appointed for the estate of her father, Quincy Chandler. He next filed an acceptance of appointment as administrator, and on March 19,1976, by order of the probate court, he was permitted to serve as the administrator of the Chandler Estate without bond. One of the assets of the estate was a tract of farm land, which was leased to a third party. On July 18, 1986, an order was entered by the probate court, directing that all farm rental income of the Chandler Estate be paid to attorney Simes, as administrator of the estate. Judge Simes now contends that he received the first annual rental payment in 1989.1 Fourteen years after attorney Simes became administrator of and attorney for the estate, in July 1990, he received a letter from Lazora Corbin, which said, “You are here by [sic] discharged as my attorney on July 9, 1990.” The letter also asked him to “deliver” the legal file to attorney Charles Allen. According to Judge Simes, he then sent a copy of the file to Mr. Allen.

After July 9, 1990, Simes, both as attorney and after he became judge, continued to receive rental payments in connection with the Chandler Estate and never moved the court to be removed as administrator of or the attorney for the estate.2 In January 1997, after | shaving been duly elected circuit judge on November 5, 1996, Judge Simes assumed the bench as a full-time judge for the First Judicial Circuit. After becoming a judge, he still did not take action to remove himself as the administrator of the Chandler Estate or to remove himself as attorney of record for either Lazora Corbin or the estate. He continued to receive annual rent checks, but he filed no accounting for the checks received as part of the probate administration.3

On February 23,1998, Judge Simes sent a letter to Linda White, the Phillips County Clerk, which stated:

Enclosed herein you will find check # 5603 in the amount of $1440.00 dated November 7, 1997. Do you have an account in your office where this money can be kept and distributed according to a Chancery Court order? As you are aware, I no longer practice law. My last notion was that Charles Allen represented the estate. Please check your files and see who the attorney is and a copy of this pleading can be sent to them as well. If you have any further questions, please feel free to call.

Ms. White responded to Judge Simes on March 25,1998, answering, in part:

We did not find an account for this money to be kept and distributed by a Chancery Court Order. Also, I spoke with Charles Allen to see if he had handled this case and he told me he had not. The only other attorney I could find who signed off on any paperwork was Eddie Schieffler who was a court-appointed attorney for John Chandler.
Please find enclosed the letter and check you mailed to our office. If there is anything we need to do that I am not aware of please let me know.

UThe record does not reflect that Judge Simes took any further action to resolve the matter of who represented the estate upon receiving Ms. White’s correspondence.

In January 2003, attorney Jesse Dag-gett, who had been retained by the heirs of the Ghandler Estate, contacted Judge Simes and requested an accounting of the annual farm rental payments. On May 11, 2004, the heirs of the Chandler Estate petitioned Judge Kathleen Bell for an accounting and to have Arnold Chandler appointed as administrator of the estate. Thereafter, Judge Bell ordered Judge Simes to file a final accounting for the estate by October 29, 2004, for the period from March 18, 1976 to date. Judge Simes did not file the accounting as ordered. Judge Bell also discharged Judge Simes as administrator and appointed Arnold Chandler as Administrator in Succession of the estate.

On November 18, 2004, Judge Bell re-cused, and Special Judge W.H. “Dub” Arnold was appointed to decide the case. Judge Arnold held a hearing on September 29, 2005 with respect to the motion for accounting filed by Daggett on behalf of the estate. Judge Simes and Mr. Daggett each made a statement at the hearing, and Arnold Chandler testified. On October 10, 2005, Judge Simes filed a Petition for Attorney’s Fees and Executor’s Fees before Judge Arnold, seeking payment of $13,940.77, to cover his claimed service to the estate as both administrator and lawyer from January 1976 through March 1998. The fees claimed by Judge Simes for work done in 1998 as administrator and attorney, after he assumed the bench, included the letter to Linda White, Probate Clerk, on February 23, 1998; a letter from 15Connie Smith, Deputy Probate Clerk, on March 25, 1998; and a conversation with attorney Charles Allen on March 25, 1998.

Following the hearing, Judge Arnold entered an order dated October 25, 2005, and concluded that Judge Simes had breached his fiduciary duty to the estate and that he owed the estate a total of $24,138.03, inclusive of interest, for the rent payments he had collected and failed to disburse to the heirs. Judge Simes paid the judgment. Judge Arnold’s order also denied the petition for attorney’s and administrator’s fees and found that Judge Simes had violated various Rules of Professional Conduct.4 Judge Arnold also noted that Judge Simes had failed to comply with Judge Bell’s 2004 order that he file a final accounting for the estate. Judge Simes did not appeal Judge Arnold’s order.

On October 27, 2005, Judge Arnold referred Judge Simes to the Arkansas Supreme Court Committee on Professional Conduct (CPC), by letter and attached a copy of his order to the letter.5 On September 12, 2006, a Consent Findings and Order was entered by the CPC and agreed to by Judge Simes, wherein Judge Simes was cautioned by the CPC for violating various Rules of Professional Conduct and was ordered to pay restitution to the Chandler Estate in the amount of $2,122.99 for attorney’s fees incurred. That consent order provided in part that: “Judge Simes’ conduct, as an attorney, violated Model Rule 1.15(b), |nin that he failed to promptly deliver to the Estate of Quincy Chandler the funds represented by three rental checks for the years 1997, 2000 and 2002.”

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Judicial Discipline & Disability Commission v. Simes, 2009 Ark. 543, 354 S.W.3d 72, 2009 Ark. LEXIS 707 (Ark. 2009).

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