In re Goldberg

22 Pa. D. & C. 582, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 203
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedApril 15, 1935
Docketno. 1625
StatusPublished

This text of 22 Pa. D. & C. 582 (In re Goldberg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Goldberg, 22 Pa. D. & C. 582, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 203 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1935).

Opinion

Per CUriam,

— This respondent, Albert P. Goldberg, was summoned before the special committee of the Philadelphia Bar to answer to certain acts of professional misconduct set forth in the summary of the testimony and report of the said committee. A number of witnesses were summoned, including the respondent himself, and certain documentary evidence was presented. As a result of the hearing before the said special committee, a petition for rule to show cause why he should not be disciplined was served upon him and an answer filed thereto by him and a hearing in his case was held before the five president judges of the courts of common pleas on March 23, 1935.

Albert P. Goldberg was admitted to the bar in August of 1926 and was employed by the office of Samuel W. Salus, Esq., with which office he has since been connected as an employe. His practice has been exclusively in criminal cases. He appeared before the special committee of the Philadelphia Bar in November 1934 and before this tribunal on March 23, 1935.

While respondent was engaged in the representation of a great many defendants arrested for engaging in the illegal lottery business with some knowledge that the fees were paid by the bankers or men at the head of this illegal practice, nevertheless he took his orders from Herbert W. Salus, one of his employers, as the cases .were assigned to him. He was employed at a small compensation and acted as one of the attorneys of the office in representing the number writers. Without in any way excusing him for this representation in the number business, he is involved in a charge of professional misconduct of such a more serious nature that his activities in representing number writers sink into insignificance.

This respondent was guilty of conduct that has no justification in his misrepresentation of one Marie Clayton. This young woman had charged one Paul Kroekel, with whom she had been employed, with fornication and bastardy, which case was tried in the Municipal Court on May 25 and 26, 1933, in room 676, before Judge B'onniwell. The verdict of the jury was that of guilty, and the defendant was sentenced to pay the lying-in expenses in the sum of $35, and an order of $9 pear week was placed upon him for the maintenance and support of the minor child. The defendant was represented by Samuel W. Salus, Esquire, the employer of this respondent. No payment [583]*583was ever made by Kroekel on this order. On July 13, 1933, a new trial was granted to the defendant by Judge Bonniwell. From the evidence it is shown that a Mrs. Agnes Stewart, wife of one Walter Stewart, in May of 1933 was visited by an unknown man who informed her that her husband and Marie Clayton were running around together “and they were caught and he was the father of her baby.” This same man returned to the home of Mrs. Stewart on several occasions and induced her to go to the office of Samuel W. Salus, Esq., where she met Arthur Salus, the son of Samuel W. Salus. This was in the middle of the summer of 1933. There Arthur Salus informed her again that her husband was going about with Marie Clayton. Again she was summoned to the Salus office, where she was informed that her husband was going to divorce her. This woman had had some difficulties with her husband because of his friendship with Marie Clayton and she gave Arthur Salus some information about that. A statement was then prepared and sworn to by Mrs. Stewart setting forth those facts. Later she was again summoned to the office of Samuel W. Salus and she was shown a prepared statement in writing charging her husband with adultery and fornication and Marie Clayton with fornication. She denied that she had any knowledge which would justify her taking an affidavit to such state of facts. Arthur Salus advised her to sign the statement and make an affidavit that the facts were true, stating that it would only be used in the event that her husband and Miss Clayton were caught in the act of intercourse, otherwise it would be destroyed. This affidavit was prepared with the specific knowledge and approval of Samuel W. Salus. Induced by the statement of Arthur Salus, the said Agnes Stewart took an affidavit to the said statement in the Salus office on October 3, 1933.

John J. White, a private detective, was employed by Arthur Salus in September 1933 to shadow Marie Clayton, and he made one or more efforts to gain the friendship of Marie Clayton by going to the restaurant where she was employed as a waitress, leaving excessive tips and attempting to induce her to ride with him in his automobile, all of which attempts failed. All of the detective bills were paid 'by the Salus office for K'roekel, and it is admitted that no fees or bills for any of the services of the Salus office or for detective charges or expenses were paid by Agnes Stewart. On October 13, 1933, in the early evening, Marie Clayton went to the Chestnut Hill Hospital to see a Mrs. Sheppard who had been a patient theire. Mrs. Sheppard had gone home that day and as Marie Clayton left the hospital she met Walter Stewart also coming in to see Mrs. Sheppard. It appears that Marie Clayton and Walter Stewart and their families had known each other for 12 or 14 years and that both were friends of Mrs. Sheppard. Marie Clayton rode back to the city in the automobile of Stewart, and while he was in the vicinity of his parents’ home,, and in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, Detective White, a former Police Chief Koons of Springfield Township, and three other men came up, two of whom were armed with revolvers, and placed Marie Clayton and Walter Stewart undeir arrest. They were taken before Police Chief Egner in Springfield Township, Montgomery County, and then brought into the Twelfth and Pine Streets police station in Philadelphia and placed in cells. Shortly after their arrival the respondent, Albert P. Goldberg, whom Marie Clayton had never seen before, appeared at her cell and called her by name, handed her his card and volunteered his services. One hour later she was taken to the office of Magistrate Medway, a political affiliate of Samuel W. Salus, by whom the warrant was issued upon the affidavit [584]*584dated October 3d and she received a special hearing before him. Mrs. Stewart was present with Arthur Salus, Esq. She was then released on bail and the next day, or about October 19th, Marie Clayton got a notice from the respondent Goldberg to appear at the Salus office. There for the first time Goldberg mentioned the Kroekel case. Goldberg stated that he would help her. A few days later he telephoned her to call at his office and suggested that he would help heir in her case before Magistrate Medway if she would drop the Kroekel case, saying that there would be terrible publicity in her case and it would do her a lot of harm in the Kroekel case. Goldberg informed her that if she secured the services of an outside lawyer he could not do her as much good as he, Goldbeirg, could do being in the Salus office, and insisted upon being her lawyer. She paid Goldberg no fee for any services performed and he asked for none. The Kroekel case was listed for trial before Bonniwell, J., on October 26, 1933, and the case against her for the alleged offense in Springfield Township was set before Magistrate Medway the following day. Goldberg instructed Marie Clayton to tell Judge Bonniwell that she was about to be married and wished to drop the ease against Kroekel. The respondent Goldberg appeared with her before the bar of the Municipal Couirt and Samuel W. Salus was present with the defendant Kroekel.

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Bluebook (online)
22 Pa. D. & C. 582, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-goldberg-pactcomplphilad-1935.