Louisiana State Bar Ass'n v. Haack
| Decision Date | 18 February 1963 |
| Docket Number | No. 45748,45748 |
| Citation | 150 So.2d 32,243 La. 1108 |
| Parties | LOUISIANA STATE BAR ASSOCIATION v. Arthur B. HAACK. |
| Court | Louisiana Supreme Court |
A. K. Goff, Jr., Ruston, John Pat. Little, New Orleans, Walter G. Arnette, Jennings, Pat W. Browne, Sr., New Orleans, A. Leon Hebert, Baton Rouge, for petitioner.
W. P. Macmurdo of Percy, Macmurdo & Gray, Baton Rouge, for respondent.
Invoking our original jurisdiction the Louisiana State Bar Association, through its Committee on Professional Ethics and Grievances, instituted the instant proceeding in which it seeks the disbarment of Arthur B. Haack, a member of the Bar of Louisiana. The Association alleged that the respondent, during the year 1960, committed certain specified acts which constituted violations of laws of this state and rules of professional ethics; and that they were of sufficient gravity to evidence on his part a lack of moral fitness for the practice of law and to warrant his disbarment. Attached to the petition was a letter, of date April 13, 1961, written by the respondent to the Committee in which he fully described the entire transactions forming the basis of the alleged violations.
Answering, respondent admitted writing the mentioned letter; he averred that he realized his mistakes; and he prayed 'that petitioner not disbar him but rather suspend him and give him another chance'.
Thereupon, this court appointed Honorable James A. Van Hook (a member of and an active practitioner at the Shreveport Bar for more than ten years) Commissioner to take evidence and to report his findings of fact and conclusions of law in the matter. And some three months later he held a hearing at which only the respondent testified, the testimony being principally an affirmation of the recitation of facts contained in the letter of April 13, 1961.
In due course Commissioner Van Hook furnished to this court an exhaustive and a well prepared report announcing certain findings of fact, based on the testimony and letter of Haack, which in his opinion supported most of the charges contained in the petition for disbarment. Also he set forth therein numerous other facts, reflected by the evidence and found by him, that would be relevant and important in a consideration of the question of mitigation of punishment. However, he made no recommendation as to what penalty should be imposed.
The respondent did not except to the report. In fact, during the oral argument here both he and his counsel freely admitted the commission of the violations charged; and they urged merely that, in view of the unusual mitigating circumstances disclosed, the court show leniency respecting the disciplinary action to be taken. Further, near the close of such argument, counsel suggested that respondent would voluntarily surrender his privilege and license to practice law in this state if permitted to do so.
Subsequently, following submission of the case, respondent filed a written motion in which he tendered his resignation as a member of the Louisiana Bar and prayed that it be accepted and approved. The committee is opposing the motion and urges that it be denied.
The facts and circumstances giving rise to this proceeding, undisputed and clearly shown by the record, are as follows: Respondent was admitted to the Bar of Louisiana on February 17, 1959, at which time he was 25 years of age, and thereafter commenced the practice of law in Shreveport. About mid-August, 1960 he began representing a Mr. E. L. Hardin in negotiations leading to a proposed purchasing of certain property in Bossier City which was owned in indivision by four majors and two minors. The total purchase price was to be $21,000, of which amount $5,000 was payable in cash and the balance on terms of credit. Certain technical obstacles were encountered in the obtaining of title from the minors, however, and it appeared that proper judicial authorization for the sale of their interest could not be secured until the latter part of September (this meant a delay of some six weeks in consummating the purchase).
Since both the prospective vendors and vendee were eager to arrange a binding agreement it was decided that the required $5,000 cash payment would be deposited by Hardin with respondent Haack until the sale's completion. To this end the latter and his client's wife went to the First National Bank of Shreveport where Mrs. Hardin paid for and received five $1,000 money orders, four of which were made payable to the respective major vendors and the remaining one to Haack (the proceeds thereof were to be paid ultimately to the minors). All five money orders were then delivered to respondent, and he immediately placed them in a safety deposit box rented by him.
Believing that the sale would not be completed for at least six weeks Haack, on the following day, endorsed the money order payable to him and deposited it to the credit of his personal bank account which was overdrawn approximately $300. Shortly thereafter he learned that the court had refused to approve a credit sale of the minors' interest, the effect of which refusal would necessitate further negotiations between the parties.
Thereupon Haack, being deeply in debt and pressed by his creditors (he admitted that some of his debts represented loans he had obtained to pay off gambling obligations), requested certain close friends to (and they did) endorse for him the remaining four money orders which were payable to the major vendors; he then signed his own name thereto; and over a five months' period he cashed them at banks in Shreveport and Baton Rouge. The proceeds, except for a very small amount, were used in paying his personal debts and the living expenses of his family (it consisted of his wife, two small children and himself).
If the undisputed facts and circumstances outlined above were only and solely those...
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