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In re Berryman12/28/2000
. . . Respondent engaged in conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, and/or misrepresentation;
Rule 8.4 (d), . . . Respondent engaged in conduct prejudicial to the administration of justice.
On March 27, 1992, Ms. Patterson signed a will drafted by Ms. Berryman, who was named personal representative. The will provided for the payment of "5% of all assets" to Ms. Berryman as an expense of administration of Ms. Patterson's estate. In addition, the will specified that if Ms. Patterson's parents should predecease her, "15%" of "any legacy to them" would be distributed to Ms. Berryman.
After Ms. Patterson died, a letter of June 14, 1993, was sent to Ms. Berryman from Bonnie J. Lawless, Esq., advising her she " been retained by George Thorne, husband of the late Mary Lessie Thorne Patterson," and that he was "entitled to his statutory share as the parties never divorced." The record is silent as to whether a copy of Mr. Thorne's marriage license was enclosed with the letter. Ms. Lawless sent a second letter, on June 24, 1993, complaining that all furniture and possessions had been removed from Ms. Patterson's home, even though "Mr. Thorne has a valid claim to his statutory share of the estate, including tangible personal property."
In spite of the communications from Ms. Lawless, Ms. Berryman filed a petition for probate of Ms. Patterson's estate on June 29, 1993, without naming Mr. Thorne as an interested party. On August 27, 1993, Ms. Lawless sent a letter to the Register of Wills indicating that Mr. Thorne was Ms. Patterson's husband, and attaching a copy of his marriage license, as well as a certificate from the Family Division of the Superior Court that there was no record of any divorce. Mr. Thorne's notice to the Probate Division, in which he claimed a statutory share of Ms. Patterson's will as her surviving husband, was docketed on September 2, 1993. Nonetheless, on October 22, 1993, Ms. Berryman filed an inventory of Ms. Patterson's estate, and again did not list Mr. Thorne as an heir or interested party. At a hearing in the Probate Division on November 23, 1993, Ms. Berryman asserted that she did not receive written documentation of Mr. Thorne's status as Ms. Patterson's husband until September 1993, and that because Mr. Thorne had deserted Ms. Patterson for thirty years prior to her death, he was not entitled to any of her estate under D.C. Code ยงยง 19-103 and 19-104. Counsel for Mr. Thorne insisted that Ms. Patterson left Mr. Thorne, and that he did not desert her. Later, in 1997, this court affirmed the trial court's order concluding that Mr. Thorne was Ms. Patterson's spouse, and that he was entitled to the statutory share of her estate. See Berryman v. Thorne, 700 A.2d 181 (D.C. 1997).
The Hearing Committee found that, "by depositing the estate funds of $939.84 into the Citizens Account, [Ms. Berryman] commingled them with her own funds," in violation of Rule 1.15 (a). Furthermore, "by drawing on the Citizens Account, she misappropriated the estate funds for her own use," also in violation of Rule 1.15 (a). However, the Hearing Committee concluded that Ms. Berryman engaged in negligent rather than intentional misappropriation. The Hearing Committee also found that, independent of commingling and misappropriation, Ms. Berryman violated Rule 1.15 (c), "by failing to keep these disputed funds separate from her own funds."
The Board decided that although the Probate Division determined that Ms. Berryman was "entitled to the Citizens Bank Account because of survivorship rights," after she listed the value of that account in the inventory of Ms. Berryman's estate assets, "she was not entitled . . . to make disbursements for her own pu
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