People ex rel. Colorado Bar Ass'n v. Ellis

• Decision Date: 06 July 1908
• Citation: 44 Colo. 176,96 P. 783
• Parties: PEOPLE ex rel. COLORADO BAR ASS'N v. ELLIS.
• Court: Colorado Supreme Court

96 P. 783

44 Colo. 176

PEOPLE ex rel. COLORADO BAR ASS'N v. ELLIS.

Supreme Court of Colorado, En Banc.

July 6, 1908

Proceeding by the people, on the relation of the Colorado Bar Association, against G. F. Ellis for contempt. Respondent discharged.

A. R Mollette, for petitioner.

Melville Calvert & Sackett, for respondent.

PER CURIAM.

The information charges that the respondent, notwithstanding he has no license or authority to practice law in this state has been advertising, representing, and holding himself out as an attorney, appearing in courts of record in this state to conduct suits, actions, and proceedings for other persons as an attorney, and has practiced law in violation of the statutes of the state; and prays that the respondent be brought before the court and punished for contempt, as provided by the statute found on page 157, c. 77, Sess. Laws 1905.

The respondent admits that he has practiced law in this state notwithstanding the prohibition of the statute, but disclaims any intentional violation of the law. He pleads guilty to the charge preferred in the information, and sets forth the following in mitigation of the offense: He avers that he was admitted to practice in the courts of Kentucky in the year 1881, and continued in the active practice of law in that state for the period of more than 20 years; that he was admitted to practice before the courts of the territory of New Mexico in January, 1905, and was admitted to practice before the Department of the Interior in the year 1907; that no charges have ever been preferred against him, and that he is now entitled to practice law in the state of Kentucky, the territory of New Mexico, and before the Interior Department that about October 15, 1907, he removed to Montezuma county in this state for the purpose of locating there, and secured from the clerk of this court the rules of this court, and, attempting to comply therewith, made application to practice law in this state, and provided and forwarded to the proper authority certificates of his admission to practice in New Mexico, and, being unable to find his certificate, made affidavit that he was admitted to practice in the state of Kentucky; that, believing he had done all that was required to entitle him to practice, he accepted employment as an attorney at law, but before doing so advised with the district judge of the district wherein he resided as to his right to appear...