Former client can pursue legal malpractice suit against disbarred

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 8, 2003 by Lawrence Hurley

A former client of disbarred lawyer and Annapolis lobbyist Bruce C. Bereano can pursue a legal malpractice suit against him after the Court of Special Appeals overturned a summary judgment in his favor.

Bereano reacted to yesterday's decision with indignant fury, describing the suit filed by his former client, William H. Mossburg, as "frivolous" and "scandalous."

Mossburg claimed in the 1999 suit, which was filed in Montgomery County Circuit Court, that Bereano was negligent when representing him in a case against the county government.

The county won a default judgment of more than $2.5 million following a dispute over a 1994 fire at commercial property owned by Mossburg on Travilah Road.

"Maybe the Court of Special Appeals was reading a different case," Bereano said yesterday.

He also claimed that the suit was an "attempt to politically and professionally embarrass" him and speculated that the motivation for filing it may have been a financial dispute between Mossburg and his current lawyer, Peter I. Davis.

Davis responded by saying that Bereano "has never had the ability to confront the reality of his situation."

John A. Rego, who has worked with Davis on the case, added that he was "looking forward to it getting back on track" at the circuit court.

Mossburg's dispute with Bereano relates to their differing versions of why the default judgment -- a sanction for failing to comply with an order directing Mossburg to respond to discovery -- was entered in 1995.

Bereano maintains that Mossburg did not provide him with the necessary documents, while Mossburg claims Bereano did not inform him about all of the information the court required.

"How do you force a client to turn over documents?" Bereano said yesterday. "They were not in my possession."

Writing for the court in an unreported opinion, Judge Deborah S. Eyler said that the summary judgment in favor of Bereano was incorrect because various facts were disputed by the two parties.

"While Bereano argues that he was not in possession of any of the documents that were not produced...he did not provide any admissible evidence to support that assertion," she wrote.

Eyler concluded that "there were a host of genuine disputes of material fact over whether Bereano's representation of the appellants constituted a neglect of his reasonable duties."

Bereano, who was convicted in 1994 of mail fraud after a federal jury found he had over-billed clients and funneled the money into political campaign bank accounts, said he is confident he will prevail when the case is remanded back to the circuit court.

Montgomery County originally sued Mossburg because the fire department had to spend a month extinguishing a fire which had broken out on his property after Mossburg ignored an order to deal with it himself.

Mossburg runs two companies on the site, solid waste recycler Travilah and wood chip and mulch producer Mossburg Farms.