State ex rel. Oklahoma Bar Ass'n v. Dodd

1994 OK 90, 895 P.2d 688, 65 O.B.A.J. 2442, 1994 Okla. LEXIS 99, 1994 WL 329732
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 12, 1994
DocketOBAD No. 1072; SCBD No. 3854
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1994 OK 90 (State ex rel. Oklahoma Bar Ass'n v. Dodd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Oklahoma Bar Ass'n v. Dodd, 1994 OK 90, 895 P.2d 688, 65 O.B.A.J. 2442, 1994 Okla. LEXIS 99, 1994 WL 329732 (Okla. 1994).

Opinion

HARGRAVE, Justice.

Respondent James Craig Dodd was charged with violating then-effective Code of Professional Responsibility, 5 O.S. Ch. 1, App. 3 (1981), DR 5-104(A), DR 5-107(A) and DR 4-101(A). In approximately 1982, Respondent began representing Herb, Jr. and Jean Stange on an oil and gas matter. That matter having been concluded successfully, Respondent instituted an action on the Stange Jr.’s behalf. In November 1983, Herb Stange Jr. introduced Respondent to his parents, Herb Sr. and May Stange, who were in their seventies and were desirous of having some estate planning done. Over the next several years, Respondent conducted various matters for both Stange families, including placing some investments for the elder Stanges -with E.F. Hutton brokerage firm, and also became personal friends with them.

The oil and gas case that Respondent undertook for the Stanges Jr. was set for trial in February, 1986. In January, 1986, the Stanges Jr. owed Respondent approximately $65,000.00 in unpaid legal fees and expenses and had advised him that they were unable to pay. Without telling the Stanges, Jr., Respondent on January 13, 1986 approached the Stanges Sr. at their home to discuss the Stange Jr.’s unpaid legal fees and expenses. Respondent requested the Stanges Sr. to advance the expenses, or a portion thereof, in order to enable him to get the ease to trial because of large expenses that were arising. It appears that, through liquidation of their E.F. Hutton accounts, cash advanced and monies on deposit in the Respondent’s trust account, the Stanges Sr. transferred $82,-[689]*689193.15 to cover the Herb Jr. and Jean Stang-es’ bills. The Respondent contends that these amounts were transferred to him as a loan, and that if the case was unsuccessful, he would bear the risk. No promissory note or other evidence of this indebtedness was signed by the Respondent until 1987. The understanding was that when Respondent received his attorney’s fee from the Stange Jr. lawsuit he would repay Herb Sr. and May Stange.

The Stange Jr. lawsuit was concluded and an award of $315,000.00 compensatory and $300,000.00 punitive damages was given, of which $315,000.00 was collected in July, 1987. In the meantime, Respondent had the opportunity to take on some large plaintiffs’ cases that would involve a great deal of cash outlay on his part. He estimated that he would need approximately $170,000.00 and he attempted to borrow $90,000.00 from an Enid bank. Also, he approached the Stanges Sr. in June, 1987, about making him a loan. He testified that they had become close personal friends and that he explained to them his business hopes and plans and explained to them the opportunities facing him in his law practice and the attendant expenditures of large sums of money. He testified that he later explained to the Stanges that he was unable to get the bank loan that he needed. All this he knew before he received the approximately $140,000.00 attorney fee from the Stanges Jr. case, which he did not use to pay the Stanges Sr. He explained that because he could not get the bank loan, he needed all of the money and that that was the reason the Stanges’ Sr. agreed to loan him the additional sum of money.

The additional sum loaned by the Stanges’ Sr. was $104,000.00, for which Respondent and his wife on June 29, 1987 signed a handwritten “promissory note” drafted by Respondent that provided for an interest rate of 12%, a term of one year and had Respondent’s home, Respondent’s parents’ home and Respondent’s airplane as collateral. On September 3, 1987, Respondent rewrote the handwritten note to include the sums previously advanced by the Stanges’ Sr. for the Stanges’ Jr. legal fees, for a total sum of $188,000.00 due August 12, 1988, at 12% interest. The collateral was second mortgages on real estate, including: Respondent’s home, Respondent’s parents’ home and a lot owned by Respondent and his wife in Enid. The plane did not appear as collateral on the second note, nor did the vacant lot appear on the first note. The Bar offered evidence of a title search showing that at the time the note was given the Stanges’ mortgage would have been a third mortgage against Respondent’s home, a second mortgage against his parents’ home and a second mortgage against the vacant lot.

Respondent testified that he had mortgages prepared, and delivered them to the Stanges’ Sr. at their home at the time the second note was signed and that he instructed them to send the mortgages for recording. The mortgages were not recorded and things began to break down between the Stanges and Dodd, apparently when Herb Stange discovered this. Upon learning from Mrs. Stange Sr. that the mortgages had not been filed of record, Dodd immediately prepared new mortgages and had them filed of record. He testified that no intervening encumbrances against the property had been incurred during that time.

Subsequently Respondent suffered business difficulties, which he attributes to a federal court sanction that was later reversed by the Tenth Circuit, and was unable to repay the loan by August 12, 1988. Since 1989, Respondent has made assignments of attorneys’ liens in certain of his cases to the Stanges Sr. The Trial Panel found that as of February, 1991, the Respondent had made payments of $105,000.00 to the Stanges, Sr. Respondent testified that this entire payment represented interest on the obligation, so that the principal amount of $188,000.00 is still due and owing to the Stanges Sr. Respondent also named the Stanges Sr. as beneficiaries of a $250,000.00 life insurance policy on his life and assigned them security interests in his office furnishings, equipment, etc.

The Trial Panel’s conclusions of law were: that Respondent violated DR 4-101 in seeking loans from the Stanges, Sr. for the Stanges, Jr.’s legal bills without first asking the Stanges, Jr. for their consent, and that [690]*690Respondent violated DR 5-104 by not advising the Stanges, Sr. to obtain another attorney to represent them in the business transactions he had with them and in not properly documenting the various transactions so as properly to secure the Stanges Sr.’s interests. DR 4-101 provided in part:

(A) “‘Confidence’ refers to information protected by the attorney-client privilege under applicable law, and ‘secret’ refers to other information gained in the professional relationship that the client has requested be held inviolate or the disclosure of which would be embarrassing or would be likely to be detrimental to the client.”
(B) “... a lawyer shall not knowingly:
(1) Reveal a confidence or secret of his client.
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(3) Use a confidence or secret of his client for the advantage of himself ... unless the client consents after full disclosure.”

We find that Respondent’s actions in seeking a loan from the parents of his client to pay the client’s legal fees, without informing the client, violated the client’s secrets to Respondent’s advantage. Respondent’s actions did not fall within DR 4-101(C) which provides that a lawyer may reveal confidences or secrets necessary to establish or collect his fee or to defend himself or his employees or associates against an accusation of wrongful conduct.

The critical issue in the loan transaction between Respondent and the Stanges, Sr. in determining whether Respondent violated DR 5-104(A) is whether the client consented after full disclosure. DR 5-104(A) provided:

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State Ex Rel. Oklahoma Bar Ass'n v. Cross
932 P.2d 1107 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1996)

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Bluebook (online)
1994 OK 90, 895 P.2d 688, 65 O.B.A.J. 2442, 1994 Okla. LEXIS 99, 1994 WL 329732, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-oklahoma-bar-assn-v-dodd-okla-1994.