Bangor lawyer suspended for 3 months

PORTLAND – A Bangor lawyer was suspended Tuesday for three months from the practice of law for mishandling the case of a former Ellsworth businessman.

Justice Robert Clifford of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ordered that Philip L. Ingeneri, 62, be suspended effective July 1 for six months with all but three months suspended.

It was the second time Ingeneri has been suspended from the bar.

Once Ingeneri’s three-month suspension ends, the attorney must report to a volunteer monitor for one year, beginning Oct. 1, Clifford ordered. Another Bangor lawyer was appointed as Ingeneri’s monitor.

The monitor must report quarterly to the Board of Overseers of the Bar on how Ingeneri is handling his workload and cases.

The complaint was filed in September 2002 by Richard Parks Anderson of Ellsworth. Anderson owned Richard Parks Furniture in Ellsworth and, until 1995, owned the Richard Parks Gallery on Park Street in Bangor.

Anderson hired Ingeneri, a single practitioner, to represent him when the Ellsworth contractor that Anderson hired in 1999 to renovate his furniture store sued him for nonpayment. Anderson refused to pay the contractor because the contractor failed to complete the work to the store owner’s satisfaction, according to court documents.

Although Ingeneri filed an answer to the contractor’s complaint in 2000, he did not return Anderson’s phone calls concerning the case and failed to respond to a court motion in January 2001. A default judgment was entered against Anderson, and in February 2002 he was ordered to pay the contractor more than $64,000.

Anderson had to sell his business and real estate and cash out his retirement and his children’s college funds to pay the negotiated $50,000 settlement, according to court documents. Anderson sued Ingeneri for malpractice and was granted a default judgment of $50,000 last year in Penobscot County Superior Court.

J. Scott Davis, bar counsel to the board in Augusta, recommended that Ingeneri be suspended for six months and a day. Any suspension longer than six months requires that an attorney seek reinstatement. Because his suspension totaled six months, Ingeneri will not be required to do that.

Ingeneri’s attorney, Karen Kingsley of Lewiston, said Tuesday she had argued for a six-month suspension with all of it suspended. Kingsley, who formerly worked for Davis as assistant bar counsel, said she also had urged the court to impose the conditions it did.

“I’m outraged that’s all he got, considering the damage he caused me and his total disregard for me as a client,” Anderson said Wednesday when informed of the judge’s ruling.

At hearings on his complaint, Anderson consistently argued that Ingeneri be disbarred.

Ingeneri did not challenge the court’s findings that he had violated the following Maine bar rules:

. Conduct unworthy of an attorney.

. Conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit or misrepresentation.

. Conduct that is prejudicial to the administration of justice.

. Neglect of a client’s matter.

. Inadequate preparation of a client’s matter.

. Failure to respond to the bar counsel of the Board of Overseers of the Bar.

According to the judge’s order, Ingeneri is suffering from “major depression” but is undergoing treatment. It is not the first time the Bangor attorney, who was admitted to the Maine Bar in 1970, has been suspended from the practice of law because of mental health issues.

Ingeneri was suspended in 1981 for three months and ordered to continue psychiatric treatment for similar conduct, according to Clifford’s order. Ingeneri also was reprimanded in 1978 and 1995 after complaints were filed by former clients.

He did not return phone calls Wednesday about his suspension.

Ingeneri filed for bankruptcy in January 2003. He listed less than $50,000 in assets and $50,000 and $99,000 in debts, according to documents filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Bangor.

Anderson has filed a complaint in that court asking U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Louis Kornreich to order Ingeneri to pay the default judgment. A trial in the matter is scheduled for June 2.

Ingeneri is the second attorney sanctioned by the court this year. Charles Williams III of Lewiston was disbarred last month. Justices sanctioned one attorney last year, but issued 15 decisions on complaints against attorneys in 2001.