In re White
| Citation | 171 P. 759,54 Mont. 476 |
| Decision Date | 11 March 1918 |
| Docket Number | 4151. |
| Parties | In re WHITE. |
| Court | Montana Supreme Court |
On petition by the Attorney General, H. P. White was cited to show cause why he should not be punished as for a contempt for practicing law without first having been admitted to the bar. Respondent adjudged in contempt.
On December 4, 1917, the Attorney General of the state filed with the clerk of this court a petition, reciting that H. P White, the respondent, a resident of the town of Troy in Lincoln county, "is holding himself out as an attorney at law by advertisement and otherwise, and practicing the profession of an attorney and counselor at law in said town of Troy and county of Lincoln, without first having been admitted to do so by this court," and asking that a citation issue under the seal of this court, requiring the said White to appear and show cause why he should not be punished as for a contempt. The petition was supported by the affidavits of B. F. Maiden and Graham Fletcher, attorneys and counselors at law residing, respectively, at Libby and Troy in Lincoln county, the former being also the county attorney and George E. Davis, a justice of the peace residing at Troy. In response to a citation directing him to appear and show cause why he should not be punished, the respondent filed an answer, which denied certain of the material allegations in the affidavits, admitted others, and then pleaded in avoidance that, before he appeared in the district court, he had obtained permission to do so from Hon. T. A. Thompson the presiding judge. The court thereupon appointed James M Blackford, Esq., an attorney and counselor at law residing at Libby, to hear the evidence submitted and to report the same with his findings of fact to this court. This has been done, and the matter is now submitted for decision.
The referee found the charges contained in the petition and affidavits fully established by the evidence, and reported That during the year 1917 the respondent, not having been admitted to practice law in the state of Montana or in any other state, appeared as an attorney of record in the district court of Lincoln county in two causes, numbered, respectively, 400 and 409, by filing papers therein in behalf of defendants; that during the same time he advertised himself as a lawyer in the local newspaper in Troy, on letter heads used by him in his correspondence and by a sign displayed in front of his office which he maintained in the town of Troy; that he appeared in the district court on two different occasions, representing defendants in the causes mentioned, but that, before doing so, he had obtained the permission of the presiding judge; that such permission had been granted by reason of the...
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