Ramon G. K. Gordon

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

A teacher purchasing a home paid a deposit of $467,475.00 to the Respondent, who acted for the vendor but undertook to the Complainant to rectify boundary encroachments using part of the deposit, keep her updated, and refund within 30 days if she cancelled. After little progress, she cancelled the sale on 3 January 2011, but her money was never refunded (over 2 years and 8 months in default). The Committee found the complaint proved beyond reasonable doubt, finding breaches of Canons VII(b), IV(r) and IV(s). It expressly found the Respondent was NOT dishonest, having taken some steps to rectify the encroachment, but his conduct fell markedly below professional standards. Applying Bolton v The Law Society, it ordered restitution plus interest and costs, with a conditional 12-month suspension if not paid by 31 October 2013.

Duties found breached:

• Overriding duty to the court
• No conflict between current clients
• No improper use of client money
• Prompt accounting and return of money

Aggravating factors:

• Default in refunding the deposit for 2 years and 8 months
• Complainant was a teacher who struggled to raise the deposit to acquire a home
• Failure to offer any explanation or accounting to the Complainant
• Failure to honour a professional undertaking

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent did initiate some steps to rectify the boundary encroachment
• Respondent was found not to be dishonest
• Respondent sent J$2,000.00 toward an outstanding costs order

⚠ figures not found verbatim in the source were dropped: ["unverified_suspension_months=12"]