PORTLAND, Ore. (Legal Newsline) - An Oregon personal injury lawyer made sure the largest settlement ever paid by the Oregon Department of Corrections went to the wrong person, a lawsuit is alleging.
Malinda Barton, daughter of Michael, filed a lawsuit Oct. 13 in Clackamas County Circuit Court against Dawson Law Group and attorney Bryan Dawson. She alleges Dawson wrongfully signed up her half-uncle to represent Michael's estate in a lawsuit over his 2018 death from the flu in January 2018.
Barton was 54 and incarcerated at the Oregon State Penitentiary for a bank robbery conviction. His flu was ignored by staff, leading to pneumonia, staph infection and sepsis, the case filed by his half-brother Stephen Brown said.
Oregon paid $2.75 million to Brown, one-third of which went to the attorney Dawson. Their case was bolstered by a report by Disability Rights Oregon blamed prison staff. And former DOC Director Colette Peters (who is now director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons) said Michael Barton's death was "needless and preventable."
Malinda's complaint says Dawson was in a rush to sign the estate as a client and wrongfully chose Brown to represent it in court. Malinda is Michael's only living child, but Brown and Dawson entered into a contingency fee agreement in 2019.
Emails cited in the complaint reflect a concern with Brown's choice of representative.
"Dawson knew that he had a problem," Malinda's lawsuit says. "In order to keep this substantial case and the opportunity it would provide for Dawson to gain both the financial benefits and the reputation-enhancing benefits of winning this promising wrongful death case, Dawson needed to ensure that Stephen Brown - and not any other party - was appointed as personal representative for the Estate of Michael Barton."
Malinda says Dawson and Brown took steps to keep her from knowing there was a petition to open her father's estate and a wrongful death lawsuit. Brown's statement in estate proceedings said he and his sister Terrill Tatum Barton were the only heirs of Michael Barton, the suit says.
Months earlier, though, Brown and Dawson emailed about trying to find Malinda, whether a blood test would be needed and how any recovery would be split. Dawson told Brown 100% would go to Malinda.
"The problem with locating Malinda Barton was not that Stephen Brown was unable to do so; rather, the issue was that Brown had no intention of pursuing the wrongful death litigation if the proceeds would go to Malinda Barton," the suit says. "The failure to provide her with notice of these proceedings was deliberate."
In October 2019, Dawson said he was fine with submitting papers to have Brown appointed personal representative - "This leaves some risk that Malinda could emerge later with a birth certificate and take all the money recovered. This appears to be unlikely because Michael isn't listed as her relative on the Lexis report."
Malinda says Dawson was required to notify her, as a potential heir, of the opening of her father's estate. She was unaware of the wrongful death suit until reading an article in May 2021, she says, then was blocked on Facebook by Brown and Tatum Barton when she reached out to them on Messenger.
She turned to Dawson, believing he had probably never heard of her, the suit says.
"(Dawson was) aware that Stephen Brown was breaching his fiduciary duties owed to Malinda Barton," her suit says. "This collusion with Stephen Brown and Dawson's assistance to him in breaching his fiduciary duties constituted a fraud on Malinda Barton, as it was done, in part, to protect Dawson's contingency fee agreement and Dawson's contractual interest to one-third of the damages obtained through the settlement."
Ultimately, she settled claims against her aunt and uncle in October 2021. She now seeks repayment of the fees awarded to Dawson - nearly $1.5 million. She is represented by James Cartwright.
Dawson recently removed the case to federal court.