Opinion
May 15, 1967
In this proceeding to discipline an attorney upon charges of unprofessional and unethical conduct, the respondent has failed to answer the petition containing the charges although the time to do so has expired. Respondent was admitted to the Bar by this court on October 9, 1930. The charges fall into two categories, (1) failing, refusing and evading payment of incurred obligations and using his status as an attorney to evade and avoid payment of such obligations and (2) abusing and taking advantage of the confidence reposed in him by clients, for his personal benefit, by commingling clients' money or other trust property with his own and using and converting the same. The specific charges in the first category are that (a) he confessed judgment in the amount of $40,000.23 in December, 1963 for unpaid "royalties and damages for the unauthorized and clandestine manufacture and sale of phonograph records"; (b) he confessed five additional judgments at various times from 1963 to 1967 to five creditors, respectively, for reporting services and for paper and books sold to him, in varying amounts totaling $1,684.71; (c) he failed to pay bills for services rendered for transcriptions of examinations before trial, totaling $160, for many months and despite many demands, until after complaints had been made to the petitioning Bar Association; and (d) he failed to pay another bill, of $72.75, for paper purchased in 1965. The specific charges in the second category are that (a) respondent in 1962 deposited into his own bank account an $8,000 check which belonged to and was payable to his client and averted the client's inquiries by stating that he had invested the money for him in a real estate mortgage, but he never delivered or exhibited such mortgage to the client and did not repay the money until after complaint had been made to the Bar Association; and he retained an additional $2,000 belonging to the same client in 1963, falsely telling the latter that the money was required to indemnify a third party with respect to certain property of the client's; (b) he received $148,247.50 from a client prior to her death in 1962 to invest for her, prepared a petition in the administration of the client's estate in which he omitted to include that money as an asset of the estate and also reduced the figures of other assets by about $19,000, and later confessed judgment for $102,033.45, the balance owing by him on the $148,247.50 debt after certain payments he had made; (c) he induced two clients to lend a corporation of which he was president $20,000 in 1963 upon his false representation that he would give them participation certificates in a first mortgage held by the corporation — the corporation did not own the mortgage — and he later issued checks for $10,900 to these clients but stopped payment on them, and ultimately the clients procured judgment against him for $21,405.11 in an action for fraud and deceit; (d) he procured money (amount unstated) from another client in 1960 upon his representation that he would invest it for her in a mortgage, but he never gave her any document therefor and averted her many demands; and she had never received interest or principal payments thereon when she complained to the Bar Association in July, 1964; and (e) he procured $8,000 from a client in 1965 upon his representations that it would be invested in a land purchase scheme and that he would give the client shares of stock in a certain corporation — there was no such corporation in existence — and he did not repay the money until after complaint was made to the District Attorney. The charges, if established, would obviously require respondent's disbarment. Since he has chosen not to deny the charges, the charges must be deemed established. Respondent is unfit to be a member of the Bar. He is disbarred and his name is ordered removed from the roll of attorneys and counselors-at-law, effective forthwith. Beldock, P.J., Ughetta, Christ, Rabin and Benjamin, JJ., concur.