Brodstein Disbarment Case

182 A.2d 181, 408 Pa. 84, 1962 Pa. LEXIS 472

• Court: Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
• Decided: June 13, 1962
• Docket: Appeal, 225
• Status: Published

Opinions

Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Bell,

Ellis Brodstein, a member of the Berks County Bar for 40 years, was disbarred, after a hearing by the lower Court. Brodstein had filed three income tax returns which the lower Court found to be fraudulent. In one of these returns he had omitted to report approximately $22,000 income which he received in 1956. In imposing sentence the Court took into consideration not only the aforesaid fraudulent income tax returns but also (a) the fact that in 1930, Brodstein had been suspended for three years for unprofessional conduct, and (b) the fact that Brodstein’s conduct for nearly 25 years had been so exemplary that he had been elected in 1951 President of the Berks County Bar Association, and (c) that he was highly respected by judges and lawyers alike, and (d) that he is now 66 years of age and ill, and (e) that he had paid his deficiency (income) taxes in full.

Brodstein contends that in the light of all these facts, the sentence of disbarment was unreasonable, unjust and undoubtedly too harsh, and that the Court should instead have imposed a sentence of suspension. The lower Court imposed the sentence of disbarment with great reluctance.

This Court being evenly divided on the question of whether there was an abuse of discretion, the Order of the lower Court is affirmed.

Mr. Justice Benjamin R. Jones and Mr. Justice Eagen dissent and would enter an order suspending appellant from the practice of law for a period of five years.