Six Month Suspension For Mass. Lawyer Who Bought Client's Home At Foreclosure Sale

The Sun Chronicle reports that North Attleboro, Massachusetts attorney Michael J. Duggan, a lawyer for more than three decades, has had his law license reinstated after serving a six month suspension because of conflict of interest and ethics violations.

The law license suspension was over Duggan's representation of a financially strapped local couple facing foreclosure. According to the article, Duggan was hired by the couple to protect their North Attleboro home from foreclosure and restructure their debt; instead, he reportedly ended up purchasing the home himself at the foreclosure sale. For more, see North Attleboro lawyer Duggan's license reinstated.

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Postscript

The couple subsequently filed a civil lawsuit against Duggan and ultimately was entitled to get back some of their home equity. For more details on this case, in which a Massachusetts appeals court sets forth the specific conduct that they determined that Duggan engaged in and, in essence, awarded the couple the right to their home equity back (by imposing a constructive trust on the home and the attorney), see Duggan v. Gonsalves, 65 Mass. App. Ct. 250; 838 N.E.2d 614; (Mass. App. Ct. 2005) (case available online courtesy of Findlaw.com).

According to the court case, it wasn't until immediately prior to the foreclosure sale that Duggan advised his clients, the homeowners, that he was going to bid on the home. He informed them that if he was the successful purchaser, he would let them stay in the house and rent it for a year. A dispute about the rent arose shortly after Duggan purchased the home and he subsequently attempted to have the homeowners evicted (sound familiar?)

By the way, the Massachusetts appellate court decision constituted a reversal of an earlier decision of a trial court, in which the judge initially hearing the case apparently didn't think the homeowners were entitled to relief. Fortunately for the homeowners, their legal counsel was prepared to appeal the initial decision and have it reversed by the higher court.