PCB 54

[04-Jun-1993]

                             STATE OF VERMONT

                        PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT BOARD

IN RE:  PCB File No. 92.13

                             NOTICE OF DECISION
                                   NO.  54

       This matter was submitted to the Board by Stipulation of Respondent
  and Bar Counsel.  Upon consideration of this Stipulation, the Board voted
  to impose a private admonition upon Respondent for violating DR
  6-lOl(A)(3).  Below are the Board's Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law
  and reasons for imposing discipline.

                               Facts

       1.   In March 1988 Respondent received a Quit Claim Deed for a time
  share unit, a Decree of Distribution and associated documents from an
  attorney in Connecticut to be recorded in the local Town Clerk's office. 
  On March 22, 1988 Respondent wrote to the attorney advising him the
  documents had been sent to the Town Clerk and that he would forward the
  recorded documents when he received them from the Town Clerk.

       2.   After some time had passed the attorney had not received from
  Respondent the recorded Deed, and the client's check for the Property
  Transfer Tax had not been cashed.  In September 1990 the attorney contacted
  Respondent's office and received a written reply indicating that as a
  result of a clerical error in Respondent's office the documents had not
  been filed.  Respondent assured the attorney that the documents would be
  recorded promptly.

       3.   In March 1991, when the attorney had not received the documents,
  he again contacted Respondent's office.  Respondent wrote a letter to the
  local Town Clerk enclosing the documents for recording along with his
  office check to cover the recording fees.

       4.   Again the documents were not recorded.  When the out of state
  attorney still had not received the recorded deed, he contacted
  Respondent's office on January 8, 1992 and January 17, 1992 and spoke to
  Respondent's secretary.  Respondent did not receive these telephone
  messages.  The out of state attorney received no response from Respondent. 
  Several days later the attorney wrote to the local Town Clerk who indicated
  that the documents in question had not been recorded.

       5.  Upon being notified of the complaint of the Board, Respondent
  confirmed that the documents had not been recorded.  Respondent immediately
  hand-delivered the documents to the local Town Clerk together with his
  office checks to cover recording fees and property transfer tax.

       6.   It appears that it was a simple oversight that the documents were
  not recorded in 1988.  Respondent has no explanation as to why there was no
  follow up to be sure the documents were recorded later on.  Respondent
  assumes full responsibility for this neglect. Although the March 1991
  package of documents was misplaced either by Respondent's office or the
  Town Clerk's office, Respondent again did not follow up to be sure of
  proper recording.  His check to the Town Clerk for recording was carried by
  his office as uncashed for eleven months without investigation.

                         Conclusions of Law

       The Board finds that Respondent's conduct here violated DR 6-
  101(A)(3), (neglect of a matter.)

                              Sanction

       The Board has imposed a private admonition, consistent with Standard
  4.44 of the ABA Standards for Imposing Lawyers Sanctions. That Standard
  provides, "admonition is generally appropriate when a lawyer is negligent
  and does not act with reasonable diligence in representing a client and
  causes little or no actual or potential injury to a client".

       Mitigating facts present include no prior disciplinary offenses,
  absence of a dishonest or selfish motive, free and full disclosure to the
  Board and a cooperative attitude toward the proceedings and payment out of
  Respondent's own funds for recording and property transfer tax.  The only
  aggravating factor is that despite several opportunities to correct the
  problem over a two and one-half year period, Respondent failed to do so
  until the Complaint was filed by this Board.     

       Dated this  4th day of June, 1993.

                                  PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT BOARD
                                   /s/
                                  ________________________________
                                  J. Eric Anderson, Chairman
     /s/                                /s/
____________________________       _______________________________
Deborah S. Banse, Esq.             Nancy Foster
     /s/                                /s/
_____________________________      _______________________________
Anne K. Batten                     Joseph F. Cahill, Jr., Esq.
                                        /s/
_____________________________      _______________________________
Rosalyn L. Hunneman                Nancy Corsones, Esq.
     /s/                                /s/
_____________________________      _______________________________
Robert P. Keiner, Esq.             Christopher L. Davis, Esq.
     /s/                                /s/
_____________________________      ________________________________
Donald Marsh                       Paul S. Ferber, Esq.
                                        /s/
________________________________   ________________________________
Karen Miller                       Edward Zuccaro, Esq.
     /s/                                /s/
______________________________     ________________________________
Ruth Stokes                        Jane Woodruff, Esq.