Waking up from the Nightmare

Pity poor Jack Canavan.

Jack was a retired fellow.  Jack was named as one of two executors in the will of Edward McGrade, who died in November of 1997.  The executors retained Paul Feldman, a lawyer, to act for the estate.  One of the executors died, leaving Jack as sole executor.  Things progressed rather slowly, so one of the beneficiaries applied for a “passing of accounts”, which is essentially an order requiring the executors to show what they have done. 

There were numerous court dates and orders made.  Feldman did not attend all of them, nor did he report to his client what was going on.  Essentially, Feldman failed to do much of anything that was required by the orders, yet he kept telling Jack that he was looking after it.  Ultimately the beneficiary sought to have Jack jailed for contempt, for not complying with the court orders.

Feldman, without discussing it with Jack, without Jack present and without any permission, admitted the contempt on behalf of his client.  This resulted in a warrant for the arrest of Jack and a sentence of 6 months in jail.  Jack did not know about this and the police had not yet acted on the warrant.

One day, at yet another court hearing, Jack WAS present with Feldman.  Jack had no idea what had been going on, as Feldman had lied to him over the course of the matter.  The beneficiary’s lawyer pointed out to the judge that the warrant was still outstanding.  With that, the judge called in a police officer, Jack was arrested on the spot and transported to jail to start serving his sentence. 

Jack spent 35 days in jail.  At first, Feldman continued to lie to him, claiming that he was trying to get him out.  Finally, Jack’s naivete eroded and Jack called another lawyer, who got him out very quickly.

Jack was 67 years old at the time.  He had high blood pressure and diabetes.  He was put in a cell with 30 other prisoners, most of them young men.  He got his meals through a hole in the wall.  He wore an orange jumpsuit and had no privacy.  He was strip-searched several times, often in the presence of female guards.  He was allowed to go outside 20 minutes a day.  He got 15 minutes on the phone with his family per day.  He was in jail on Father’s Day, two graduation ceremonies for grandchildren and his son’s 20th wedding anniversary.

Can you imagine what he must have gone through?

Jack sued Feldman, and rightfully so.  He was awarded $300,000 and his wife was awarded $25,000 for the loss of companionship for the time they were apart.

Feldman has previously been disciplined by the Law Society.  I have not seen a report on discipline for this incident, though there was an investigation.  My bet is Feldman will either resign or be disbarred.  He deserves it.