Opinion
January 12, 1960.
January 19, 1960.
Attorneys — Disbarment — Grounds — Conviction of income tax evasion — Wilfully defrauding United States — Filing false and fraudulent United States Estate Tax Return — Conviction — Disbarment by United States Treasury Department — Effect.
1. In this disbarment proceeding in which it appeared that the respondent had been convicted for wilfully and knowingly attempting to evade and defeat income taxes due by him for various years by filing false and fraudulent tax returns; and had also been convicted of filing a false and fraudulent estate tax return (in which case a new trial had been granted upon the single ground that the jury may have been prejudiced by certain newspaper articles published during the trial); and it further appeared that the respondent had been guilty of serious professional misconduct in other matters and had been disbarred from practice by the United States Treasury Department, it was Held that the court below had properly entered a decree of disbarment.
2. The true test in a disbarment proceeding is whether the attorney's character, as shown by his conduct, makes him unfit to practice law from the standpoint of protecting the public and the courts.
3. Even acquittal of the crime charged does not preclude disbarment action when deemed appropriate.
4. An attorney's disbarment by the United States Treasury Department in itself casts a serious doubt upon his right to continue to practice in the courts of Pennsylvania.
Argued January 12, 1960. Before JONES, C. J., BELL, MUSMANNO, JONES, COHEN, BOK and EAGEN, JJ.
Appeal, No. 255, Jan. T., 1959, from order of Orphans' Court of Philadelphia County, No. 258 of 1959, in re Harry J. Alker, Jr. Order affirmed.
Same case in court below: 16 Pa. D. C.2d 653.
Disbarment proceedings. Before KLEIN, P. J., BOLGER, LEFEVER and SHOYER, JJ.
Order of disbarment entered, opinion by KLEIN, P. J. Respondent appealed.
W. J. Woolston, with him Francis E. Walter, and David Bortin, for appellant.
Henry T. Reath, amicus curiae and Chairman, Committee of Censors of Philadelphia Bar Association, in propria persona, appellee.
The order of the Orphans' Court of Philadelphia County disbarring Harry J. Alker, Jr., from practicing in that court and striking his name from the court's roll of attorneys is affirmed on the opinion of President Judge KLEIN, reported in 16 Pa. D. C.2d 653.