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 rectify boundary encroachments and refund the deposit within 30 days if she cancelled. He took some steps but failed to complete them, failed to keep her updated, and failed to refund the deposit after she cancelled in January 2011. The Committee found breaches of Canons VII(b), IV(r) and IV(s) proven beyond reasonable doubt, expressly finding he was NOT dishonest. It ordered restitution of $467,475.00 plus 6% interest and $40,000.00 costs, with a 12-month suspension to take effect if payment was not made 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:

• Deposit of $467,475.00 not refunded for 2 years and 8 months
• Complainant was a teacher who struggled to raise the deposit
• Failure to provide any explanation or accounting for the money or steps taken

Mitigating factors:

• Respondent did initiate some steps to rectify the boundary encroachment
• Found not to have been dishonest

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