- 25 - continued representation of her subsequent to her husband's death amounted to fraud on the Court. Mr. Young was never notified that he was representing Mrs. Dornbrock as her subagent rather than as her agent; therefore, he could not have been expected to assume that the death of Mr. Dornbrock would terminate his authority to represent Mrs. Dornbrock. Mr. Young's continued representation of Mrs. Dornbrock was clearly in her best interest since she claims she had no knowledge of the proceedings and, therefore, would not have had the opportunity to appoint new counsel to represent her in this case. Mr. Young had a duty to represent Mrs. Dornbrock to the best of his ability until he was notified otherwise, a duty which he aptly fulfilled. On this record, the Court is satisfied that Mr. Young filed the petition as agent for both Mr. and Mrs. Dornbrock. There is no evidence to support the contention that Mr. Dornbrock employed Mr. Young to represent him alone and that Mr. Young represented Mrs. Dornbrock in a subagency capacity. There were some 35 husbands and wives who were joint petitioners in this case and to hold that, as to this one couple, Mr. and Mrs. Dornbrock, there was this special agent and subagent relationship, is simply incredible. The Court does not buy that argument. Mrs. Dornbrock contends that, under Michigan law, an attorney-client relationship terminates upon the death of the client, and the authority of the attorney to represent thePage: Previous 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011