Tallahassee residents say lawyer pocketed $176K in city payout

A group of Tallahassee residents is suing their former attorney, Henry C. Hunter, alleging he pocketed $176,275 given to them by the city in exchange for their land in an eminent domain case.

The plaintiffs also named the city as defendants, alleging it failed to put the money in a court registry and instead gave it directly to Hunter, whose law license was revoked in April. In a separate lawsuit, the plaintiffs are suing the city, claiming it doesn’t have legal title to the land.

“These people are in a terribly unfortunate situation of having a governmental entity come in and take their property,” said one of their attorneys, C.B. Upton of Tallahassee. “And then the payout from the lawsuit for their property — they didn’t get any of it because their lawyer stole it.”

According to the lawsuit, Hunter and the city entered into stipulated order on the land in 2013 that awarded the money to the plaintiffs. At the time, Hunter didn’t notify the plaintiffs about the agreement.

Read more: http://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2017/06/20/lawsuit/410388001/