High court accepts Runser resignation

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

The Ohio Supreme Court has accepted the resignation of a longtime local attorney who was accused of misappropriating funds and failing to properly handle the legal responsibilities related to a trust and a guardianship/estate.

Court documents indicate that Ohio’s highest court recently accepted the resignation of C. Allan Runser, a local attorney who had practiced law for more than 47 years. Runser was the subject of a three-count complaint filed September 17 with the Supreme Court’s Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline charging that he had misappropriated more than $90,000 from the estate of the late Jeanne Koch, and another $471,000 from the Barbara Mary Shackley Trust.

With the Supreme Court accepting Runser’s resignation, the attorney will no longer be able to practice law in the state of Ohio, which means that a new attorney will need to be appointed for any of his pending cases. Currently, Runser has 27 pending estates, one trust and six guardianships pending in Van Wert County Probate Court.

In addition to the disciplinary action filed with the Ohio Supreme Court, which will not now be pursued because of Runser’s resignation, the attorney also faces a civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Toledo related to his alleged mishandling of the Shackley Trust. That legal action was filed on behalf of Michigan resident Mary Ann Jensen, the beneficiary of the trust.

The suit charges that Runser wrote 50 unauthorized checks totaling $471,350 to himself or his law firm, Runser & Putman, between March 2, 2011, and September 13, 2013. The estate was said to be worth $802,788.86 as of March 31, 2011.

Also charged in the lawsuit is Shaun Putman, Runser’s law partner at the time who has since opened his own law practice.

There may also be criminal charges filed at some time against Runser related to the Koch and Shackley cases.