The widow of Kingwood lawyer Kenneth R. Mahand stands to collect a total of $363,788 after winning a judgment regarding her deceased husband’s caseload. On Oct. 4, 113th District Judge Patricia Hancock of Houston signed a final judgment awarding Rosa B. Mahand $28,035 in actual damages, $53,575 in attorney’s fees, $280,000 in exemplary damages and $2,178 in prejudgment interest from “Lindeman & Frye, Attorneys and Counselors at Law, P.C., James E. Lindeman, Individually, Charles B. ‘Brad’ Frye, Individually, and Lindeman, Alvarado & Frye, L.L.P., jointly and severally,” all of Houston. Rosa Mahand alleged in a petition she filed on Feb. 16, 2009, that the defendants breached a referral contract she negotiated with them in 2005, by failing to pay her up to $1 million, plus accrued interest. She sought an accounting of the cases referred to the firm from her late husband’s practice. In an answer filed on March 18, 2009, the defendants “deny the existence of a written contract with Plaintiff, individually” and argued that she should take nothing in Rosa B. Mahand v. Lindeman & Frye, et al.Following a discovery dispute, Hancock signed an order on March 29 imposing sanctions on all defendants for violating Texas Rule of Civil Procedure 215; the judge struck their pleadings and entered a default judgment against them. Frye, who represented himself and the other defendants, did not return a call seeking comment. Lindeman declines comment. Rosa Mahand’s attorney James C. “Clay” Crawford, a partner in Sears & Crawford in Houston, did not return two telephone messages seeking comment, and Albert Lee Giddens, a Pasadena solo who is Rosa Mahand’s former attorney in Mahand v. Lindeman & Frye, did not return a telephone message. According to a case referral letter dated Feb. 20, 2005, which is an exhibit to Rosa Mahand’s original petition, Kenneth Mahand practiced at Law Office of Kenneth R. Mahand in Kingwood before his death.
-- Brenda Sapino Jeffreys
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