Decision  Joaquin Pellot Rodriguez, James N. Ellis & Associates (3rd Party) v. Carilorz Corporation

Date:	03/23/2009
Organization:	Department of Industrial Accidents
Docket Number:	DIA Board No. 025582-96
Location:	Boston

• Third-party Claimant: James N. Ellis & Associates
• Employee: Joaquin Pellot Rodrigues
• Insurer: Massachusetts Trade SIG

FABRICANT, J. The third party claimant, James N. Ellis & Associates, appeals from an administrative judge's decision upholding a 1998 conference order requiring, inter alia, that $1,035 in claimed expenses held in escrow from a lump sum settlement agreement approved on October 17, 1997, be paid to the employee, rather than to the law firm of Ellis and Ellis. The judge found that James N. Ellis, Sr., of James N. Ellis and Associates,¹ had not established he was the successor in interest to James N. Ellis, Jr., the filer of the 1997 attorney's lien. We affirm the decision.

¹ The third party claimant does not appear to dispute that it is James N. Ellis, Sr. who is the principal of James N. Ellis and Associates. We note that James N. Ellis, Jr., was suspended from the practice of law by a single justice of the Supreme Judicial Court, whose decision was affirmed by the full court, shortly after the lien was filed in the instant case. See In the Matter of James N. Ellis, Jr.; In the Matter of Nicholas J. Ellis, 426 Mass. 332 (1997).