In Re McNabb

1919 OK 325, 185 P. 431, 76 Okla. 253, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 177
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 12, 1919
Docket7843
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1919 OK 325 (In Re McNabb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re McNabb, 1919 OK 325, 185 P. 431, 76 Okla. 253, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 177 (Okla. 1919).

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

Robin Riley and another filed an original petition in this court against L. 0. McNabb, Esquire, defendant, praying that the license heretofore issued to said McNabb authorizing him to practice as an attorney and counsellor at law in the courts of this state be revoked and his name stricken from the rolls of attorneys, and that he be forever barred from practicing law as an attorney in this state.

The petitioner alleged in substance that Riley had been appointed guardian of his two minor children, Sarah and McKinley, who were Cherokee freedmen, and who, as such, received allotments of land in the Cherokee Nation; that after the appointment he commenced proceedings to sell the lands of his minor children and employed defendant to represent him therein; that a sale was ordered and the allotment of Sarah sold for $600.00, and that of McKinley for $750.00, the purchase price of which was paid to the defendant as attorney for plaintiff; that said defendant kept said moneys and appropriated same to his own use, and failed to pay over same to plaintiff, but, instead, without first having obtained an order of court therefor, executed a deed to said minors of certain lands owned by him in lieu of the moneys received by him for the lands of. said minors, which land so conveyed to said minors was encumbered by mortgages aggregating the sum of $1,280.00.

It is further alleged that plaintiff was and is an illiterate and uneducated person; that he can neither read nor write, and is unaccustomed to transacting business, all of which was well known to defendant at all times.

It is further alleged that plaintiff, Riley, had inherited the allotment of his deceased-child, Alex, consisting of eighty acres, more or less, which at the same time and as part of the transaction just stated was sold by defendant for the sum of $800.00, which sum was paid to, and by him retained, in the same manner as the sum already mentioned,, and that said defendant, knowingly, purposely, and corruptly kept all of said sums of money with the purpose and intent of cheating and defrauding said plaintiff and his minor children out of same.

It is further alleged that said defendant, as attorney for plaintiff Riley, prepared and filed reports of said Riley as guardian of said minor children wherein it was falsely stated -that said guardian had invested in land for the use of said minor children the sum of $1,500.00.

As a further count it is alleged that said defendant -was guilty of willful violation of the duties of attorney and counsellor in that •while he was duly elected and acting county attorney in and for Sequoyah county he defrauded one Holloway out of $200.00 by representing to said Holloway, who was then under indictment in the United States court for the Eastern District of Oklahoma on the charge -of selling whisky to an Indian, that said defendant in consideration of said sum did guarantee to said Holloway that said Holloway would not serve one minute in jail, but that' said defendant would see the judge of said court and have the cause dismissed, and in the event said Holloway was confined in jail on account of said charge, would refund said sum with interest; that in violation of said -agreement said defendant refused to represent said Holloway, who was confined in the United States jail on the plea of guilty.

As a fifth count it is charged that said defendant has -been convicted of a misdemeanor involving moral turpitude.

A supplemental petition was filed on the 1st of December, 1915, wherein it was alleged that said defendant violated his duties as an attorney and counsellor in that during the year 1914, while he was the duly elected, qualified, and acting county attorney in and for Sequoyah county, he accepted employment as an attorney and counsellor for the defendant in a certain divorce suit pending in the superior court of Tulsa' county, and filed answer and cross-petition in said action, wherein a final decree was entered award *255 ing defendant the sum of $400.00 as alimony, which sum was paid to defendant, who remitted to his client the sum of $200.00, falsely and. fraudulently representing to her that said sum was all that had been allowed.

Answer was filed by defendant -denying ■each material allegation, and the cause was referred to the Hon. J. F. King, of Newkirk, with directions to make and report findings of fact and conclusions of law, who, in pursuance of the order of reference, heard the testimony and thereafter made and filed his report, in which it is found as follows:

As to the first three paragraphs of the petition, hereinafter called the first count and being 'the Robin Riley charges, your referee makes from the evidence the following findings of fact:

Sarah Riley and McKinley Riley, the minor children of the plaintiff, Robin Riley, were Cherokee freedmen and as such freedmen were allotted certain lands in the Cherokee Nation in what is how Nowata county, Oklahoma. They are now about 17 and 19 years of age, respectively. On the 10th day of March, 1909, the said Robin Riley was appointed by the county court of Sequoyah county, Oklahoma, the county in which they lived, guardian of the persons and estates of the said minors, and he duly qualified as such. .If any lawyer prepared the petition for his appointment or filed the same, the evidence fails • to show. Robin Riley is an uneducated, illiterate negro, unable to read or write, of not very much business experience, and is now about 58 years old. During all the time in this report mentioned, he lived on his farm and these minor children lived with him.

Some time in the month of September, 1910, Robin Riley conceived the idea of purchasing from the defendant sixty acres of Arkansas river bottom land, lying about one mile from his home and at that time belonging to the defendant. He had a friend, Sam Parker, an educated and intelligent negro, who was at that time justice of the peace in that county. He took Parker with him to the defendant’s office, at that time at Yian, Oklahoma, to see about purchasing this sixty acres from the defendant. The defendant told him that there was a mortgage on the place of $1,000.00 drawing six per cent, interest and a commission mortgage of $250 that drew no interest until its maturity, and that he would sell the land to Riley for $3,000.00 less the amount of these mortgages. Riley told the defendant he would like to have the land on account of its being ver-y close to his own allotment in the bottom there, but . that he did not have the money to buy it unless he could sell some of his and the children’s land. Sam Parker advised Riley not to sell the minors’ allotments and tried to keep Riley from selling them, for the reason he thought they were good investments to hold. Riley, however, insisted on buying the sixty acres, principally for the reason that it was only about a mile from his home and allotment and where he and his said children could see after it, and could work it, the land in Nowata county being so far away and rough land. Robin Riley was at this time the owner of the Alex Riley allotment, also in Nowata county, his deceased son’s allotment. Riley, however, had made up his mind to sell these minors’ allotments before negotiating with the defendant.

Riley requested the defendant to sell through the county court these allotments of his two minor children and asked defendant to hold the sixty acres at the price mentioned for him until he could sell them.

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Related

State Ex Rel. Dale v. Vernor
1920 OK 129 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1920)

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Bluebook (online)
1919 OK 325, 185 P. 431, 76 Okla. 253, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 177, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-mcnabb-okla-1919.