75 N.W. 257 | N.D. | 1898
This is a disbarment proceeding brought in the District Court against Taylor Crum, a member of the bar of this court, resident in Cass County. A trial resulted in an order canceling the license of said attorney, and disbarring him from further practicing as an attorney-at-law. From such order the accused appeals to this court.
Section 437 of the Revised Codes reads as follows: “An appeal lies to the Supreme Court from all orders of the District Court revoking or suspending the license of an attorney and counselor at law; and upon an appeal being taken from such order all the original papers, together with the transcript of the record and proceedings therein, shall thereupon be transferred to the Supreme Court to be there tried and determined as the law and the evidence shall warrant. A judgment of acquittal by the District Court is final.” The provisions of this section have been followed in this instance, and, by a proper statement of the case, the entire record, with the proceedings and evidence received or offered, is before us; and the accused is, under the statute, entitled to the judgment of this court both upon the law and the facts.
Among the duties of an attorney, as set forth in section 427, 428, Revised Codes, are the following: (1) To maintain due respect to the courts of justice and judicial officers; (3) to never seekto mislead the judges by any artifice or false statement; (5) to abstain from all offensive personalities. Section 433, Id. provides that an attorney’s license may be revoked or suspended for a willful disobedience or violation of any order of the court requiring him to do or forbear any act connected with, or in the course of, his profession, or for a willful violation of any of the duties of an attorney as prescribed in the foregoing sections, or for the commission of any misdemeanor involving moral turpitude; and section 7022, Id., makes it a misdemeanor for an attorney to be guilty of any deceit or collusion with intent to deceive the court or a party.
We come now to the substance of the charges and the evidence. Of the original charges, only three were pressed upon the hearing. In the first it was alleged that in a certain case pending in the District Court of Cass County, and in which Mr. Cumm was attorney for the plaintiff, a motion was made by the defendant to strike the case from the trial calendar, and that on the hearing of the motion, and in opposition thereto, and for the purpose of deceiving the court, Mr. Crum made and presented an affidavit containing matters which were false, and so known by him to be false. On the hearing of this matter thex'e was a dix-ect conflict in the testimony as to whether or not the allegations in such affidavit were in fact false. After a very cax-eful study of the evidence, we are of opinion that such allegations wex-e false, but we are not clear that Mr. Crum knew them to be false. No good purpose would be served by reproducing the testimony. We need only say that, considex-ing the grave nature of the accusation, the stigma that would ever be left upon the character of the accused, should we find that the accused knowingly swore falsely, it would be contrary to our duty to so find, unless such fact be unquestionably proven. See In re Houghton, 67 Cal. 511, 8 Pac. Rep. 52. The second charge alleged that in an action in Justice’s Court, Mr. Crum, as plaintiff, obtained a judgment against a woman for a balance due him for fees and professional services, and that subsequently he filled up an execution on said judgment, and presented it to the justice for his signature, and that it was duly signed, and placed by said Crum in the hands of an officer; that in filling up said execution said Crum inserted therein that said judgment was for “labor and services,” and said execution was levied upon property that was exempt from seizure. The point
The judgment of the District Court must be affirmed.
Note—Mr. Crum’s application to the Supreme Court of Minnesota, for admission as an attorney denied, because of the disbarment. In re Crum, 75 N. W. Rep. 385.