Lancelot A. St. Martin Cowan

Findings — machine-extracted (anthropic-batch:claude-opus-4-8); verify against the decision

The Respondent attorney was found guilty of professional misconduct for failing to honour an undertaking to deliver a Duplicate Certificate of Title to the Complainant credit union, and for failing to pay the sums of $1,500,000 and $675,000 from the proceeds of sale. He placed himself in a position undermining his ability to honour the undertaking and failed to notify the Complainant when the transaction was in jeopardy or aborted. The Respondent did not deliver the title or pay the sums by the sanctions hearing. The Panel found his conduct cavalier and egregious. No express finding of dishonesty was made. He was absent and offered no mitigation. The Panel ordered his name struck from the Record of Attorneys and costs of $400,000 ($250,000 to the Complainant, $150,000 to the General Legal Council).

Duties found breached:

• No taking unfair advantage
• Not mislead third parties or opponents
• No baseless or threatened misconduct report

Aggravating factors:

• Cavalier attitude towards the Complainant
• Complete disregard for his failure to honour the undertaking or compensate the Complainant
• Failed to demonstrate any interest in addressing the complaint and absented himself from the hearing
• Failed to compensate the Complainant for prejudice and loss