Lawyer: Not enough funds in estate’s account

Attorney Joseph A. Arriola has asked the Superior Court to allow him to withdraw from representing the administrator of the Rita Kaipat estate after he learned that the balance amount in the bank account was far less than the expected amount.

Arriola said that when he inquired from estate administrator Luis K. Pelisamen about the questionable balance amount, Pelisamen told him that checks have been issued without his required signature.

“The administrator then advised me that he had been executing my signatures on previously issued checks unbeknownst to me,” said the lawyer in his declaration filed in Superior Court.

Arriola said that under the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, it allows an attorney to withdraw from representing a client if any of the following occurs:

* The client fails to pay the fees required for representation.

* Continued representation will result in unreasonable financial burden on the lawyer.

* The client fails to cooperate with and assist the lawyer with the handling of the matter.

“I believe the above factors have all occurred in this case, prompting my request to withdraw as counsel,” Arriola pointed out.

The Rita Kaipat estate was awarded by the defunct Marianas Public Lands Authority $4.7 million in land compensation settlement. The amount was split equally among three estates, Rita, Isaac, and Benigno Kaipat.

On Nov. 25, 2005, Arriola and Pelisamen opened a checking account in the amount of $1,377,058.39 at the Bank of Hawaii under the account name: Estate of Rita Kaipat.

Arriola’s office was used as the estates account’s mailing address.

Arriola said he and Pelisamen became the joint authorized signatory of the account.

“As time passed, I realized that my law office was not receiving the monthly bank statements for the estate account. I subsequently learned that the estate account statements were not being mailed to my law office address, but instead were being mailed directly to the administrator’s personal mailing address,” he said.

As a further consequence, the lawyer noted, he was not able to review the monthly bank account statements.

Arriola said he requested from Pelisamen the estate’s account information after checks were issued to heirs: the Alejandro Laniyo estate, Nieves K. Olopai estate, and Carmen Guelles estate.

“I did not receive any copies of any information concerning estate account,” he stressed.

Arriola said that, while performing a recent bank transaction at the bank under his own account, he inquired about the balance of Rita Kaipat estate’s checking account.

He said he learned that the balance amount was far less than the expected amount.

Sources said it was found out that there was no sufficient money in the Rita Kaipat estate account after one of the checks issued to a certain group of heirs bounced.

Associate Judge Juan T. Lizama will hear the issue today at 9am.