Lawyer Lisamae Gordon suspended for 6 months over botched property sale

Attorney-at-Law Lisamae Gordon has been suspended from practising law for six months over her role in the botched sale of a property in Orange Grove, Trelawny in 2014.

A disciplinary panel of the General Legal Council (GLC) handed down the sanction on Saturday. 

It also ruled that as a condition of being reinstated, Gordon will have to pay US$35,000 to Charmaine Barnett and Baron Barnett, the complainants who attempted to buy the property. 

She is also to pay legal costs of J$200,000. 

Saturday's decision follows a ruling in October last year that Gordon was guilty of professional misconduct with respect to the way she conducted the conveyancing transaction. She acted for the vendor. 

The sanction hearing was delayed after the lawyer challenged the ruling in the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal. But the efforts to get a judicial review were unsuccessful. 

The complainants, who did not retain an attorney, contended that they paid a total deposit of US$35,000 for the property.

They sought independent legal advice and later discovered that the title to the property was endorsed with a caveat and that a valid title could not be obtained.

The transaction fell through, and, according to the complainants, they could not locate the vendor or Gordon. 

Gordon was retained by Howard Jobson, who was the representative and son of the vendor, Kathleen Robinson. 

After several attempts by the complainants to get a response from Gordon regarding the status of the sale and the whereabouts of Jobson and the vendor, the lawyer indicated she no longer represented the vendor, according to a Court of Appeal judgment. 

Gordon denied owing any legal responsibility to the complainants to refund the money.  

She said except for a US$10,000 deposit, all the funds were paid directly to the vendor by the complainants.

That deposit, she said, was paid by her to the vendor at the request of the complainants.

The vendor's agent reportedly absconded with the money. 

The complaint was filed in August 2018. 

The disciplinary committee found that Gordon failed in her duties to the purchasers, notwithstanding that she was not their attorney-at-law and that she “acted in a manner contrary to the interests of the purchasers and inevitably to their detriment, while at the same time facilitating the vendor to be unjustly enriched". 

It said where money is to be paid over to the vendor, the attorney with carriage of sale must have the consent of the purchasers to do so.

It said attorneys must also ensure that that money can be refunded to the purchasers if the transaction fails. 

Gordon was not relieved of those duties by the mere fact that she was not the lawyer for the purchasers, the panel said.

And the committee said Gordon's evidence that the title she had been shown by an agent for the vendor did not have the caveat demonstrated that she had failed to do a proper title search before preparing the sales agreements.

The Chairman Trevor HoLyn, and fellow attorneys Annaliesa Lindsay and Pierre Rodgers comprised the disciplinary committee. 

King's Counsel Patrick Foster, who represented the GLC in the High Court, argued that lawyers can be found to be liable for professional misconduct, not only in relation to their clients, but anyone who has been aggrieved.

He said it meant that once they have been prejudiced by the attorneys' conduct, they can bring complaints. Foster emphasised that the Legal Profession Act was clear on that issue, and there are other court decisions on that point.

Follow The Gleaner on Twitter and Instagram @JamaicaGleaner and on Facebook @GleanerJamaica. Send us a message on WhatsApp at 1-876-499-0169 or email us at onlinefeedback@gleanerjm.com or editors@gleanerjm.com.