By Christopher Williams,Staff Writer

AUBURN – Local lawyer Leonard Sharon is seeking to have the court drop a lawsuit filed against him by a Poland man who lost his right to practice law.

Sharon represented Thomas Mangan twice: once before a grievance commission panel at the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar in 1998; and later at trial before a single Maine Supreme Judicial Court justice.

Mangan was eventually disbarred despite appealing that judge’s decision to the full Maine Supreme Judicial Court – minus that judge. The board had accused him of violating several Maine Bar rules, including inappropriate use of client escrow and having sexual relations with a client.

Mangan sued Sharon last month in Androscoggin County Superior Court, saying Sharon failed to do all he could or should have done in Mangan’s defense during the hearing and trial.

In his answer, Sharon denied Mangan’s claims. Sharon is asking the court to dismiss each of Mangan’s five counts in his complaint and is seeking legal fees.

Sharon, through his lawyer, Robert V. Hoy of Gray, argues that Mangan’s negligence, resulting in his disbarment, was greater than any negligence he accuses Sharon of having committed. Hoy wrote that Mangan hurt his case by having admitted wrongdoing.

In his answer, Hoy wrote that Sharon “affirmatively pleads that Plaintiff’s Complaint is so incoherent as to be incapable of rational interpretation.”

Mangan is representing himself in his lawsuit against Sharon.

Hoy filed a motion to dismiss the case because, he said, it was filed too late for a legal malpractice complaint. The statute of limitations is six years, Hoy wrote.

Mangan had been reprimanded by the Maine Board of Overseers of the Bar twice before 1998 and had been suspended once, a spokesman said.

This isn’t the first time he has sued a lawyer. He brought two lawsuits against an Auburn lawyer in the late 1990s. He dropped the first one and lost the second after it went to trial. He hasn’t sued a lawyer successfully, according to court records in Androscoggin and Cumberland counties.

Contrary to a previous report in the Sun Journal, Mangan never sued or recovered any monetary judgment against the Maine Board of Overseers.

The board filed its 1998 disciplinary action against Mangan based on a complaint brought by a client who hired Mangan to help settle her medical bills. She also was seeking help in locating the fathers of two of her daughters.

Mangan later began a consensual relationship with the woman, but during the time he was still acting as her lawyer, according to a court judgment.

Copy the Story Link