Lawyer acted appropriately when representing client who wanted to leave nursing home, court says
The North Dakota Supreme Court has dismissed an ethics complaint against a lawyer who helped an elderly man revoke a power of attorney so he could leave a nursing home.
A disciplinary board had found the lawyer, Gregory Runge, violated a disciplinary rule regarding clients with limited capacity and recommended admonishment. Runge appealed, and the North Dakota Supreme Court found no violation, according to a report by the ABA BNA Lawyers’ Manual on Professional Conduct. The Feb. 12 opinion is here.
Runge acted after receiving a request from a friend of the nursing home resident, Norman Franz, who began living at the nursing facility in October 2012 after he had a heart attack, according to the state supreme court opinion. Franz had executed a power of attorney in 2009 authorizing his daughter to act as attorney-in-fact for decisions about property and finances. The form said Franz had the right to revoke the power of attorney. Runge conducted an online search and found there was no guardianship or conservatorship for Franz.
Runge spoke with Franz on the phone, and Franz said his daughter was forcing him to live at the nursing home. In a meeting at the nursing home in April 2013, Runge discussed the form with Franz, who said he understood the document and he was able to attend to his own medical needs. Franz signed the form and was discharged to his friend’s home the next day.
The disciplinary board affirmed findings that Runge had violated the disciplinary rule by delivering the revocation form to a person he had never met without talking to the person’s representative. But the state supreme court said Runge’s evaluation of Franz’s capacity “was within the range of a lawyer’s exercise of professional judgment.”
Though Runge could have contacted Franz’s daughter, there was no obligation to do so under the ethics rule, the state supreme court said.
