Attorney for trust violated fiduciary duties by borrowing trust funds without obtaining affirmative consent of beneficiaries or advising them to seek independent legal advice; he impermissibly used information obtained from representation of the trust to further his own interests, borrowed money from the trust for a business transaction for his own personal gain, and thus created a conflict of interest between his fiduciary duties and his personal interests
How later courts described this case
- Attorney for trust violated fiduciary duties by borrowing trust funds without obtaining affirmative consent of beneficiaries or advising them to seek independent legal advice; he impermissibly used information obtained from representation of the trust to further his own interests, borrowed money from the trust for a business transaction for his own personal gain, and thus created a conflict of interest between his fiduciary duties and his personal interests
Written by the judges who cited it.
The opinion
¶ 33 TAYLOR, V.C.J.,
dissenting
I would disbar this lawyer. He was a trustee. He stole money from this trust and fully repaid it only when he was discovered and confronted. The most efficient and effective remedy to insure the protection of the public interest and the legal profession is to disbar him. This lawyer has been the subject of bar discipline in the past. This is not his first trip before this Court and it should be his last.