2 Pa. 187 | Pa. | 1845
— It is settled by Alston v. Moore, 1 Rolle’s Abr. 53, that it is actionable to call a lawyer a cheat; for though he were not indictable for pheating his client, or punishable for it by striking from the roll, it is enough to support an action for words which impute it, that they touch the business by which he gets his bread.
But the material question is, did the plaintiff violate his professional duty to his client, in consenting to withdraw his charge of forgery against Crean when before the alderman, instead of lending himself to the prosecution of one whom he then, and has since, believed to be an innocent man ? It is a popular, but gross mistake, to suppose that a lawyer owes no fidelity to any one except his client; and that the latter is the keeper of his professional conscience. He is expressly bound by his official oath to behave himself in his office of attorney with all due fidelity to the court as well as the client; and he violates it when ! he consciously presses for an unjust judgment: much more so when he presses for the conviction of an innocent man. But the prosecution was depending before an alderman, to whom, it may be said, the plaintiff was bound to no such fidelity. Still he was bound by those obligations which, without oaths, rest upon all men. The high and ■ honourable office of a counsel would be degraded to that of a mercenary, were he compelled to do the biddings of his client against the dictates of his conscience. The origin of the name proves the client to be subordinate to his counsel as his patron. Besides, had the plaintiff succeeded in having Crean held to answer, it would have been his duty to abandon the prosecution at the return of the recognisance. As the office of attorney-general is a public trust wffiich involves, on the discharge of it, the exercise of an almost boundless discretion by an officer who stands as impartial as a judge, it might be doubted whether counsel retained by a private prosecutor, can be allowed to perform any part of his duty. Certainly not, unless in subservience to his will and instructions. With that restriction, usage has sanctioned the practice of employing professional assistants to whom the attorney-general, or his regular substitute, may, if he please, confide the direction of the particular prosecution; and it has been beneficial to do so where the prosecuting officer has been overmatched or overborne by numbers. In that predicament, the ends of justice may
As an act of discretion, the refusal of leave to withdraw the plea of justification was entirely proper. By posting the plaintiff on the very record as a professional cheat, the defendant had given durability to what was originally momentary; and he attempted to withdraw this' aggravation of the injury only, when he had effected his purpose by it. The judge, therefore, very properly prevented him from eluding the consequences of his misconduct. Besides the propriety of a discretionary act is not a subject of review in a court of error; and a defendant has not a legal right to withdraw a plea by the act of 1806, which, though it allows him to alter, allows him not to escape from responsibility incurred. And he can amend only for informality, when, in the opinion of the court, it will affect the merits. There was no informality here; and the judge very correctly thought that the amendment would injuriously affect the merits. There was, therefore, no ground to except. Judgment affirmed.