A bank has frozen the trust account of a local real estate attorney and transferred more than $470,000 of disputed funds into a court registry.
Court documents filed Friday by Columbus Bank and Trust are among the signs of trouble facing Michael A. Ed dings, a well-known attorney and Columbus business owner who has temporarily closed his law office. Ed dings told local real estate agents the same day that he has been suspended from closing transactions amid an audit of his finances.
“Our title insurance underwriters have suspended our access and ability to close transactions until their report has been finalized and completed,” Endings wrote in an email to agents. “A First American Title Agent will call all offices that we have pending closings with to reset the closing at another Attorney’s Office until we are cleared to resume closing transactions.”
The announcement was unsettling for many in the local real estate community who have known Ed-dings and done business with him for several years. Endings and his wife, Sonya, also own Uptown Fish House and two local Coffee Beanbag cafes.
He serves on a number of boards, including the Charter Review Commission, Neighbor Works Columbus, the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce and the Columbus Regional Medical Foundation.
“Michael and his company have always been an affiliate member of our board in good standing,” said Bob Patterson, president of the Columbus Board of Realtors, adding he’s gleaned few details about Eddings’ situation. “No one’s really saying.”
Eddings declined interview requests Tuesday, saying he’s been “advised not to discuss this matter” for now. In an email to the Ledger-Enquirer, however, he sought to dispel some of the gossip permeating the real estate community about the closing of his office.
“The rumors you’ve heard are all false,” Eddings wrote. “There has been no arrest, no FBI, no IRS, or anything of the sort.”
“Audits for real estate law practices are very common and routine,” he added, saying he’d discuss the matter after the audit is complete.
Carrie Navarifar, a First American spokeswoman, said the company does not comment on “internal matters.”
The impact of Eddings’ absence from closings remained a topic of speculation. One real estate agent said the situation created “a whole lot of question marks” for the local market.
“There are clients of many firms in town who are being affected right now,” he said.
Patterson, however, said clients who had been nearing a closing with Eddings could transition to another attorney. “Closings aren’t really that complicated,” he said, “so transferring them is not really that hard.”
According to court documents, the $472,949 in Eddings’ trust account is to remain in a court registry until a judge determines how to disburse it. Bill Tucker, an attorney for the bank, declined comment on the filing, known formally as a petition for interpleader.
In court papers filed in Muscogee County Superior Court, CB&T cited “considerable uncertainty as to the specific ownership of the funds on deposit” in Eddings’ account, and “a risk of the funds in question being delivered to persons other than those who have legitimate claims for said money.”
“Given the conflicting information and claims relative to said funds, (the bank) cannot safely pay the funds on deposit to any one respondent or to any one person, until the respective rights of said person or entities have been determined and otherwise adjudicated by the Court,” the bank said.
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