Quebec bar suspends lawyer involved in effort to have senior declared unfit

Gelber was hired by Anita Obodzinski, a woman falsely claiming to be Piela’s niece, to prepare a request to have Piela declared mentally unfit and to have Obodzinski placed in charge of her affairs.

The request Gelber wrote was supported by a medical report from Dr. Lindsay Goldsmith indicating Piela suffered from Alzheimer’s disease and by a report from social worker Alissa Kerner, who is Gelber’s wife. Quebec Superior Court would later find the request to be false.

Igor Dogaru, Piela’s lawyer, said Goldsmith’s medical report indicated that Piela was incapable of taking care of herself. A subsequent report found the opposite — “that she was totally capable of taking care of herself, she had an excellent memory, (and) she didn’t have Alzheimer’s,” Dogaru said.

Gelber, who had been practising law for nearly 30 years at the time of the infractions, told the disciplinary committee he did not know the report declaring Piela unfit was false and said he had been acting in good faith.

In a decision dated Sept. 27, the committee found Gelber did not bother to inform Piela or her lawyer that a court judgment had declared her legally incompetent.

It also found he did not advise Dogaru that a request was made to remove Piela from her home and into a seniors’ residence.

“The police officers came to the house, they entered by the back door, so she started to scream and so the police officers called an ambulance and covered her mouth,” Dogaru said Monday in an interview.

The decision says Gelber, who was holding Piela’s savings in trust, transferred $100,000 from Piela’s account to Obodzinski. The money was later reimbursed after a judge ruled that Piela was of sound mind.

Obodzinski and her husband, Arthur Trzciakowski, pleaded guilty in January to their roles in defrauding the elderly woman. Obodzinski was sentenced to two years house arrest and Trzciakowski received a conditional discharge.

Kerner received a conditional discharge after pleading guilty to mischief and being unlawfully in Piela’s home. She was also suspended by Quebec’s order of social workers.

Piela’s lawyer said his Ukraine-born client, who died in 2016, has suffered through a series of stressful events that go back to her imprisonment during the Second World War.

“At the age of 17 or 18, she was arrested and put in a Nazi camp, and at the end of World War Two, she moved to Canada with her Polish husband,” Dogaru said.

The disciplinary committee said Gelber, who was not charged criminally for his role, expressed his regrets over what happened and said media attention has affected his reputation and led to a drop in clientele.

The Quebec bar and Gelber jointly proposed an 18-month suspension as a sentence. The disciplinary committee said the sentence was “very lenient considering the seriousness of the actions taken (by Gelber),” but it agreed to the recommendation.

Attempts to contact Gelber Monday by phone and email were unsuccessful.

Dogaru said that before Piela died she started legal proceedings for moral and punitive damages against those involved in this case — and her estate continues the proceedings.

Peter Rakobowchuk, The Canadian Press

by Canadian Press

Quebec bar suspends lawyer involved in effort to have senior declared unfit

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