245 Pa. 314 | Pa. | 1914
Opinion by
The appellant was a regularly admitted practitioner of law in the several courts of Philadelphia County, when on the 29th of September, 1911, he was indicted, with another, in the Circuit Court of the United States charged with conspiring to conceal assets from a trustee in bankruptcy. To this indictment he pleaded not guilty, and after trial was duly convicted and sentenced
Note to Duchess of Kingston Case, 2 Smith’s Leading Cases, 751.
The doctrine of res judicata applies whether the judgment be in civil or criminal proceeding, and, once rendered, the party convicted may not thereafter dispute the truth thereby established. The appellant had no right to a further hearing on the question of his guilt. His guilt was a fact established by an unchallenged record of a court of competent jurisdiction and was no longer open to dispute. A decree of disbarment followed necessarily. It was of no consequence that in commiting the offense of which he was convicted appellant was exercising no function of his professional office. The offense was in its nature crimen falsi, involving employment of falsehood to injuriously affect the administration of public justice, and was therefore an infamous offense. The disbarment that followed was not punitive, but protective simply. Courts can command public confidence only as those who serve therein are themselves observant of the law which it is the duty of the courts to enforce. In his high office the attorney-at-law is a minister of justice; he ceases so, to be when, whether in the line of his professional work or outside of it, he prostitutes his knowledge of the law and the skill he has acquired therein to thwart the law by deceit and falsehood in its one and only purpose, viz, to accomplish distributive justice among men. Such was the offense of which the appellant was found guilty; the sentence and judgment established his disqualification for the high and responsible office he held, and the record of his conviction, once brought to the attention of the court was ample, warrant in itself for the decree of disbarment that followed. The appeal is dismissed at costs of appellant.
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