142 N.Y.S. 62 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1913
It appears from the record before us that the petitioner, a woman upwards ;of eighty years of age, was the owner of some unimproved property in Hew Jersey, which was subject to
On June 28, 1912, appellant gave the petitioner a paper, pertaining to certain details of her matters and containing the following: “I also agree to supply the money for, board and expense money tp Mrs. Day until such time as Mrs. Day has an income from any of her property.” In the following December, conceiving herself to have an interest in what the petition calls the “Jumei Estate,” she employed appellant to recover the same, and received from appellant a paper containing among other things the following with reference to the New Jersey property: “I hereby agree to make no charge for services which I have rendered or which I may hereafter render to Olive S. Day, as an attorney in the following matters — Clearing title to New Jersey lets either at West New York, Hoboken, or elsewhere.” Concededly, this included the property covered by petitioner’s deed to appellant. . ,
The petition alleges that being unable to secure from appellant any report of his labors in her behalf or of his receipts and disbursements from her property, in January, 1913, she sought advice, formally revoked appellant’s authority to act for or represent her, and demanded an account of his transactions. In February, appellant furnished her with a so-called “ account,” which is attached to the petition, and which shows as elsewhere explained in the record, that appellant had twice mortgaged the property, first for $1,000 and again for $10,000, satisfying the foirner mortgage from the proceeds of the latter. The balance shojwn by this account to remain in appellant’s hands is $5,235>4:1, which is the sum he has, by the order appealed from been directed to pay to the chamberlain to await the result of the! reference provided for in the order. In opposition to the motion, appellant presented affidavits of himself ■ and others and various exhibits. As the merits of the petition are to be the subject of the reference, we refrain from commenting thereon, as the same are made to appear upon this record, further than to say, that we áre entirely satisfied that petitioner ■ mades out a prima facie case of indebtedness and of professional impropriety as well, and that the order was justified.
It would be most unfortunate were this salutary rule, as thus expressed by the learned chief justice, to be in anywise relaxed. What we have said suffices for the decision of this case, and ordinarily nothing further would be called for. But the growing frequency with which' the Langslow case is cited in matters analogous to the present, certain of its phrases being mis
Tet, to-day, in this community and elsewhere, what judgments are to be rendered by courts in pending cases (the, decisions in which have in all probability not yet been agreed upon by the judges themselves); what witnesses appeared to-day before the grand: jury in some matter of popular interest, and the testimony they gave; what witnesses will be produced before the same body to-morrow, and the testimony they are to give, all this ahd much more of similar import, is commonly deemed “news,” and as such as much the proper.subject for
The calloused indifference with which this state of affairs, so deeply significant and affecting so vital a phase of our political well being is regarded, not alone by the public, but apparently by many members of the Bar itself, shows how far we are out of touch with former standards. Were the Bar, as a body, alive to the importance of studying as deeply and knowing as ■ thoroughly the ethics of their profession as they study and know the law itself, such a state of affairs would not exist, because their knowledge of and attitude towards such matters would prove an educational force extending to the public at large, the virtue and good sense of which would soon recognize and correct many present-day evils, of which the foregoing is but an example.
The order should be. affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.
Ingraham, P. J., and Scott, J., concurred; Clarke and Dowling, JJ., concurred in result.
Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements.