Suspended lawyer faces lawsuit in a conservatorship case

April 16, 2013

Suspended lawyer faces lawsuit in a conservatorship case

Misappropriation charged in conservatorship
By Walter F. Roche Jr.
| The Tennessean A Nashville attorney whose law license already is under suspension for misappropriation of a ward’s funds is being accused in a civil suit of misappropriating at least $450,000 from a now-deceased elderly woman whom the courts had entrusted to his care.

In the suit filed in Davidson County Circuit Court, John E. Clemmons has been charged with breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, intentional misappropriation of more than $450,000 and repeatedly failing to account for his handling of the estate of Nannie P. Malone.

In a 16-page complaint filed Friday, Teresa A. Lyle, Malone’s daughter, charged that Clemmons had sold off at auction hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of Malone’s property but had failed to properly account for the proceeds.

The suit comes after the state Supreme Court http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130412/NEWS03/304120077/Lawyer-s-license-suspended-after-50-000-taken-from-disabled-client" alt="" title="" target="_blank">indefinitely suspended Clemmons license to practice law, citing him for misappropriation and concluding his continued practice of law “poses a threat of substantial harm to the public.”

The high court action stemmed from a Rutherford County case in which chancery court officials found that Clemmons had paid himself $50,400 without court approval from the estate of a nursing home resident who had been entrusted to his care. A review showed an additional $16,500 could not be accounted for.

In the suit filed in Davidson County, attorneys for Lyle charged that “Clemmons has not made any itemized accounting of any expense” incurred in the auction of Malone’s properties, including a 68-acre farm and four lots.

Clemmons was appointed her http://www.tennessean.com/conservator" alt="" title="" target="_blank">conservator on Jan. 29, 2008, by Davidson County Probate Judge David “Randy” Kennedy. She died Oct. 25, 2012.

Last week court officials disclosed that Kennedy had removed Clemmons from the four active cases in which he was serving as conservator or attorney. He had already been removed from the Rutherford County case.

Despite an estate with a value well in excess of $500,000, the suit charges, Clemmons posted a bond valued only at $300,000. The bonding company, NGM Insurance, is named as a co-defendant.

In addition to failing to fully account for the auction and its proceeds, the suit charges, Clemmons has failed to account for numerous other personal items, including household furnishings, antique cars, a pontoon boat, unspecified livestock, and jewelry and collectibles. Malone also had $322,750.60 in three separate bank accounts, according to the suit.

The suit charges that two of the lots owned by Malone were sold at a tax sale because Clemmons failed to pay the property taxes on the parcels.

The suit charges that even after being sent a formal notice that a full accounting was overdue, Clemmons failed to file required data — and that when he finally did respond, he did not detail the expenses stemming from the auction.

“Clemmons only accounted for $336,317.07 of the $405,228.75 generated at the auction,” the suit filed by attorney Michael Hoskins states.

Under the state Supreme Court order, Clemmons was barred from accepting any new clients effective April 2 and ordered to cease representing any existing clients effective May 2.

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http://www.tennessean.com/article/20130416/NEWS03/304160010/Suspended-lawyer-faces-lawsuit-conservatorship-case?nclick_check=1

Tuesday, April 02, 2013Last Update: 6:48 AM PT

Sick Old Man Says He Was Conned for $1M By IULIA FILIP ShareThis WEST PALM BEACH (CN) - With help from an attorney, a health-care adviser conned a dying man out of $1 million and threatened to have his wife committed to a mental institution when she tried to recover the money, the couple claims in court. Jerry and Frances Berkowitz sued Princella Lewis, her company Prestigious Lifecare for Seniors fka PL Firm, and attorney Glenn Ricardo Miller, in Palm Beach County Court. Jerry Berkowitz was diagnosed with cancer and hospitalized in June 2012. After leaving the hospital, Berkowitz was sent to a nursing home in Boynton Beach, according to the complaint. Berkowitz claims that shortly after his transfer he was referred to PL Firm, a Fort Lauderdale-based senior healthcare consulting company, for a consultation about eligibility for Medicaid benefits. The Berkowitzes claim that Princella Lewis agreed to provide them financial advice, and retained Miller, a North Miami Beach attorney, to prepare documents for them to sign. After the Berkowitzes signed the documents, PL Firm persuaded Frances to give it a $55,000 cashier's check to establish a trust, and to move all the couple's money to a single bank account, according to the complaint. "In addition to obtaining the $55,000 in Chase funds and making that amount payable to PL Firm, Mrs. Berkowitz was driven from bank to bank and directed by PL Firm to obtain cashier's checks from her various different banks and to deposit all of the funds in one single bank account that Mrs. Berkowitz held at (nonparty) SunTrust Bank ('SunTrust')," the complaint states. It continues: "In total, Mrs. Berkowitz, under the close control and scrutiny of PL Firm, was directed to gather well over $1 million of funds belonging to her and/or her husband and, as a first step, consolidate this money in an account at SunTrust." Lewis and PL Firm then had Mrs. Berkowitz transfer more than $1 million to a trust it controlled, and refused to give the couple any copies of the documents they had signed, or an accounting, the Berkowitzes say in the complaint. "On information and belief, defendants have abused and misused their positions of trust and influence over plaintiffs, taking advantage of Mr. Berkowitz's frail condition as he lingers in a nursing facility dying of cancer and taking advantage of Mrs. Berkowitz who is in the process of losing her husband," the complaint states. "On information and belief, defendants have wrongfully and illegally threatened plaintiffs with having Mrs. Berkowitz committed to a mental facility if Mrs. Berkowitz does not relent in her request to have her assets returned to her, including the over $1 million wrongfully obtained from plaintiffs by defendants." The couple wants the money returned and copies of the documents, and treble damages for civil theft, civil conspiracy, conversion, unfair trade, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud and unjust enrichment. They are represented by Webb Millsaps of Boca Raton. The PL Firm did not return requests for comment.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2013/04/02/56273.htm