Bryant v. State Bar

131 P.2d 523, 21 Cal. 2d 285, 1942 Cal. LEXIS 450
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 2, 1942
DocketL. A. 18353
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 131 P.2d 523 (Bryant v. State Bar) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bryant v. State Bar, 131 P.2d 523, 21 Cal. 2d 285, 1942 Cal. LEXIS 450 (Cal. 1942).

Opinions

THE COURT.

— By this proceeding petitioner seeks a review of the decision of the Board of Governors of The State Bar of California recommending his disbarment from the practice of law.

The recommendation of the Board of Bar Governors was made after a hearing held by a local administrative committee for the county of Los Angeles, which resulted in findings and conclusions of law adverse to petitioner, upon which the committee made its recommendation that petitioner be disbarred. The findings of the committee, with slight modifications, were adopted by the Board of Bar Governors.

The hearing before the local administrative committee was had upon an amended notice to show cause and petitioner’s answer thereto. In the amended notice to show cause, petitioner was charged with the violation of his “oath and duties as an attorney and counsellor at law within the meaning of section 6103 of article 6 of the Business and Professions Code of the State of California, as the same are prescribed by sections 6067 and 6068 of article 4” of said code “and the commission of acts involving moral turpitude and dishonesty, within the meaning of section 6106 of article 6” of the same code.

The local administrative committee made extensive findings, which may be briefly summarized as follows:

[287]*287The firm of Newton and Redondo was in the electrical display business and was the owner of three trucks equipped with electrical equipment for lighting display work. These trucks were subject to a conditional sales contract to secure the payment of a promissory note for $332.70, the property of the Universal Finance Company. Newton and Redondo desired to purchase from the Paramount Studios three Liberty motors and two electrical generators. After paying $200 on the purchase price of this property they needed $1,100 additional to complete the purchase. Paul Kalmanovitz agreed to loan them this sum. He made the loan in the following manner:

The Liberty motors and generators, instead of being transferred to Newton and Redondo, were transferred in the first instance to Lydia Koehnen (the wife and agent of Paul Kalmanovitz) by a bill of sale in her favor executed by the Paramount Studios for the sum of $1,100; then Lydia Koehnen transferred the motors and generators to Newton and Redondo by means of a like instrument. In payment thereof Newton and Redondo executed a promissory note for $2,300, and a chattel mortgage to secure the payment of said note covering their three trucks and equipment, the three motors and two generators purchased from the Paramount Studios, and other electrical equipment owned by Newton and Redondo. The note was further secured by a trust deed upon the home of Mr. and Mrs. Newton, in which petitioner was named as trustee. Petitioner stated that it would be necessary for Mr. and Mrs. Newton to execute the trust deed on their home as additional security for the payment of the $2,300 promissory note, as Kalmanovitz was making the loan prior to compliance with section 3440 of the Code of Civil Procedure (probably § 3440 of the Civil Code was intended), and that a reconveyance would be made within seven to ten days thereafter. After objecting to executing the trust deed, Mr. and Mrs. Newton finally signed the same. These papers were all drawn by petitioner. After these papers were executed, Paul Kalmanovitz loaned Newton and Redondo the sum of $1,100 only, by paying to the Paramount Studios the sale price of said Liberty motors and equipment. Petitioner was fully acquainted with the true nature of said transaction prior to the preparation of any of the documents, and prior to and at their execution.

The $2,300 promissory note was dated March 9, 1938, and [288]*288payable in installments of $100 per month at any place designated by Lydia Koehnen, the first payment falling due April 9, 1938, which was Saturday. No place of payment had been designated by Lydia Koehnen, and on Monday, April 11, 1938, Newton and Redondo inquired of Kalmanovitz where they should make the payment, and were informed by him that he had placed the matter in petitioner’s hands. On the same day Newton and Redondo tendered Kalmanovitz the sum of $100, which the latter refused to accept. They then and on the same day consulted Lyle Rucker, Esq., an attorney. Mr. Rucker immediately telephoned petitioner and informed him that he (Rucker) had to be in Bakersfield the following day, April 12, and requested petitioner to take no further action until his return within a few days. Petitioner advised Rucker that nothing would be done until the latter’s return. On April 12, in violation of his agreement, petitioner filed a verified complaint for claim and delivery as attorney for Lydia Koehnen and prayed for possession of the property and equipment covered by the chattel mortgage or for the sum of $2,300, if delivery could not be had; for $2,300 damages and $250 attorney’s fees. The sheriff took possession of all of the personal property and equipment involved in the claim and delivery action. That action was tried and the transaction between Kalmanovitz and Newton and Redondo was declared usurious. Lydia Koehnen was given judgment for $1,100 without interest, and for a further sum of $315, which the plaintiff had been compelled to pay on a third party claim filed in said action by the Universal Finance Company, which was the amount then due on the note secured by the first chattel mortgage against the three trucks and equipment owned by Newton and Redondo. This judgment was entered on October 14, 1938. (When this matter came before the Board of Governors of The State Bar, that body modified a finding of the local administrative committee in respect to the reopening of said case, to take additional evidence so that the finding as modified should read as follows: “Thereafter the said Rucker [attorney for Newton and Redondo] moved the Court to reopen the said case for the purpose only of receiving additional evidence in regard to damage and deterioration of the said property involved, and on or about December 5, 1938, the Court granted said motion, and thereafter received evidence as to said additional damages, and on June 5, 1939, [289]*289made and entered an order allowing the defendants an additional sum for property not returned to defendants in accordance with the said judgment of October 14, 1938, and also made an order vacating the prior order reopening the case and vacating the said judgment and reinstating the said findings and judgment of October 14, 1938, therein. Said judgment became final.”)

The local administrative committee also found that petitioner as attorney for one Milton Long brought suit in April, 1939, against Redondo, Mrs. Newton and others (Mr. Newton having died in the meantime) on the identical promissory note and chattel mortgage which was the subject of the third party claim in the case of Koehnen v. Redondo; that after the commencement of the Long suit, the superior court in the case of Koehnen v. Redondo issued an injunction restraining Lydia Koehnen, her agents or attorneys, from negotiating or collecting any part of the funds represented by said note and mortgage and notwithstanding its service upon petitioner and his client, petitioner obtained a settlement of said Long suit by Redondo and Mrs. Newton, paying to his client the sum of $447.92, which sum was paid to Long who delivered it to Paul Kalmanovitz; that Lydia Koehnen was, during all of the times mentioned in said notice to show cause, the agent and “dummy” of Paul Kalmanovitz. The committee further found that petitioner failed and refused to reconvey to Mrs.

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153 P.2d 1 (California Supreme Court, 1944)
Bryant v. State Bar
131 P.2d 523 (California Supreme Court, 1942)

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Bluebook (online)
131 P.2d 523, 21 Cal. 2d 285, 1942 Cal. LEXIS 450, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bryant-v-state-bar-cal-1942.