Calvin Benjamin Rose

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

Attorney Calvin Rose was found guilty of professional misconduct for breaching Canon 1(b) by acting where his professional duties conflicted with his personal interest, and for breaching the Perjury Act by falsely stating on a death certificate that he was the deceased's son and using it to obtain a Grant of Probate for a Will under which he was executor and beneficiary. The Committee expressly found his conduct dishonest but declined to strike him off, finding exceptional circumstances (correction of the certificate, property still in estate, no personal benefit/loss). He was suspended for one year, fined JMD 500,000, and ordered to pay JMD 200,000 costs (JMD 100,000 to the complainant, JMD 100,000 to the GLC).

Duties found breached:

• Cease acting on client perjury or disobedience
• Advise objectively, not a mere conduit
• Good faith and courtesy to colleagues

Aggravating factors:

• Dishonesty - knowingly gave false information recorded on an official legal document
• Used the false death certificate to obtain a Grant of Probate
• Prior disciplinary finding of professional misconduct in 2001 (Complaint No. 212/2001)

Mitigating factors:

• Property has not yet been transferred out of the estate - no loss to beneficiaries
• Attorney corrected the death certificate to remove the false description
• No personal benefit gained and no adverse effect on others
• 30 years as a member of the legal profession