In re Sapiro

262 A.D. 126, 29 N.Y.S.2d 518, 1941 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5309

This text of 262 A.D. 126 (In re Sapiro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Sapiro, 262 A.D. 126, 29 N.Y.S.2d 518, 1941 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5309 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinion

Martin, P. J.

In the fall of 1932, Murray C. Harwood and several other persons were indicted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for thé crime of using the United States mails to defraud. Harwood originally retained the respondent to act as his attorney. Because the respondent’s business required his appearance in Chicago and other cities, it was arranged that Mr. Charles L. Kahn should represent the respondent and serve as attorney of record. Mr. Kahn was retained under an agreement which provided that the fee was to be fixed [127]*127by the respondent, who should retain half of it for acting as counsel and adviser. The trial of Harwood began on January 3, 1933, and continued until March 13, 1933, when Harwood was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison.

Several weeks after the trial of Harwood had been in progress, and at a time when the jury had been selected and was serving as such, the respondent induced a man named Samuel Roth to investigate ” the qualifications, residence and citizenship of the jurors then serving on the trial. Roth visited the homes of a number of jurors. He interviewed the brother of one and the wife of another. The testimony discloses that he tried to enlist the sympathy of the latter and attempted to bribe her. As a result of Roth’s attempt to influence the jurors, the respondent’s knowledge of such attempt and his failure to disclose his knowledge of Roth’s conduct to the trial court, both the respondent and Roth were prosecuted in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York for the crime of attempting to bribe jurors. Roth was convicted but the respondent was acquitted.

Thereafter, because of their failure to disclose to the trial court their knowledge of Roth’s conduct, the respondent and Charles L. Kahn were subjected to disciplinary proceedings in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Kahn was found not guilty but the respondent was found guilty and disbarred. An appeal resulted in a reversal so that appropriate findings might be made. A second order of disbarment was thereafter entered, which was affirmed on appeal (101 F. [2d] 1018).

Based upon the respondent’s knowledge of Roth’s activities and his failure to disclose them to the trial court, the petitioner instituted charges of professional misconduct against the respondent. The matter was referred to an official referee who has submitted his report finding the respondent guilty of misconduct as charged. The respondent has defaulted on this motion by the petitioner to cdnfirm the referee’s report.

The testimony in the United States court on the trial against Roth and the respondent on the criminal charges and in the disciplinary proceedings against Kahn and the respondent, as well as the testimony in the disciplinary proceedings before the official referee, discloses that the respondent approved a suggestion made by Harwood that the jurors be investigated and recommended to Kahn that Roth do the investigating. Thereafter Kahn gave to Roth a list of the names and addresses of the jurors in the case. Kahn testified that when he gave Roth the list he admonished him against contacting ” any juror or any member of a juror’s family.

[128]*128Roth, however, testified that Kahn told him to find out if the jurors lived at the addresses given, if they were working and how long a period of time had expired since they had last served on a jury. Roth actually spoke to a Mrs. Chauvin, whose husband was serving as a juror in the case, and he also spoke to a brother of a juror named Magrino.

Mrs. Chauvin testified in the criminal proceedings against the respondent and Roth in the United States District Court. She there stated that Roth visited her on two occasions. The first was in the middle of February, 1933. Roth then asked Mrs. Chauvin if her husband was working. In reply Mrs. Chauvin asked Roth if he had a job for her husband and he answered “ Maybe,” Concerning Roth’s second visit made about ten days later, Mrs. Chauvin testified: “ A. * * * He also told me that this young man was married, recently married and that if he was found guilty his wife perhaps would kill herself. So I did not tell him I would talk to my husband about it, but he had my sympathy, rather, he got on my sympathy, rather. Q. Yes? Did he say anything about the condition of this man’s wife? A. Yes, he said she was pregnant, going to have a baby. Q. Going to have a baby? A. Yes, sir, and this Mr. Harwood was coming from a fine family; if he was acquitted his family would come up to see me, and I said I did not want anybody to come to see me. Then he began talking about fares to Europe. And he asked me if I liked to go home. I said, No, thank you.’ I said, Are you trying to bribe me? ’ He said, ‘ God forbid he would bribe me.’ I think I told you the most important things.”

Roth admitted making the first visit testified to by Mrs. Chauvin, but denied the second visit and said he never sought to bribe her. The respondent admitted that Roth had stated he had met Magrino’s brother and the wife of Chauvin but denied he had ever been told by Roth about a second visit to Mrs. Chauvin.

The testimony discloses, however, that Roth and the respondent were close friends and that largely through respondent’s efforts Roth had received several responsible positions, one being that of a corporation president at a salary of $15,000 a year, and another that of assistant vice-president of a bank of which respondent was chairman of the board of directors. Furthermore, the evidence is uncontradicted that Roth was acting as investigator in the Harwood case because he was a friend of the respondent. He received no salary for his services. There was also testimony that the respondent, because of his desire to aid Harwood on the criminal trial, had agreed to guarantee the members of Harwood’s family against any loss if they would go on a bail bond for Harwood, In [129]*129addition, on two occasions he had sent Roth, and on another occasion he had sent Mrs. Harwood, to Philadelphia to intercede with Harwood’s family to assist Harwood. The expenses of Mrs. Harwood’s trip were paid by the respondent. The close relationship between Roth and the respondent and the evident desire of the respondent to secure the acquittal of Harwood lead to the conclusion that all activities by Roth in “ contacting ” members of the jury in the Harwood case were known to and approved by respondent.

In any event, while Roth was engaged in bis activities, Mr. Chauvin reported to the court that an effort had been made to get in touch with him. The trial court, in the presence of Kahn, cautioned the entire jury against any attempt to communicate with them. These facts were made known to the respondent but he did not disclose to the trial court that he knew Roth had been investigating members of the jury and had, in fact, talked to the wife of one juror and the brother of another.

In his opinion disbarring the respondent in the Federal court, Judge Knox wrote: “ The situation in this case was much worse than that which was before the Supreme Court of the United States in Sinclair v. United States, 279 U. S. 749, and as I have heretofore said, ‘ should receive a harsher condemnation ’ than was there administered. Here, Sapiro, by his own admission, was fully aware that Roth, upon behalf of Harwood, had talked with the wife of one juror and a brother of another.

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Related

Sinclair v. United States
279 U.S. 749 (Supreme Court, 1929)

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Bluebook (online)
262 A.D. 126, 29 N.Y.S.2d 518, 1941 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-sapiro-nyappdiv-1941.