Power, In re

• Decision Date: 27 November 1950
• Docket Number: No. 31424,31424
• Citation: 96 N.E.2d 460,407 Ill. 525
• Parties: In re POWER.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 460

96 N.E.2d 460

407 Ill. 525

In re POWER.

No. 31424.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 27, 1950.

Charles Leviton, of Chicago, amicus curiae.

Marion J. Hannigan, of Chicago, for respondent.

THOMPSON, Justice.

The Committee on Grievances and the Board of Managers of the Chicago Bar Association, acting as commissioners of this court, after hearing on four separate complaints against respondent, Joseph P. Power, recommended his disbarment.

The facts concerning the first complaint are that in July, 1939, one Mary Meter delivered to respondent one five-hundred dollar and two one-hundred dollar real-estate bonds for the purpose of having respondent investigate their value. In September, 1939, respondent reported that there was $135 interest accrued on the bond and delivered that sum to Mrs. Meter. Thereafter, respondent applied the $500 bond to the purchase of certain realty and, upon inquiry from the complainant, failed to restore the bond until August, 1940, when this complaint was filed with the grievance committee by Mrs. Meter's brother in her behalf. Thereafter, respondent returned the two one-hundred dollar bonds and paid complainant $450 for the other bond. The evidence adduced on this complaint shows that the market value of the bond was $400 and that respondent had settled in full and had charged no fee. The commissioners found that respondent was guilty of unethical conduct and subject to severe criticism, but no action was taken further than that.

The second complaint, filed on behalf of one Dennis Sullivan, arose out of a retailers' occupational tax assessment for back taxes levied against Sullivan in the amount of $1165. One Gibbons, on behalf of Sullivan, consulted respondent in the matter and respondent undertook to accomplish liquidation of the claim in April, 1942. Respondent told Gibbons to bring him $600 and he would arrange a settlement. The evidence on this complaint shows that respondent received the $600, but made little or no effort to adjust the matter and made no report or return of the money. Gibbons, on behalf of Sullivan, filed this complaint with the grievance committee on January 12, 1943. Sullivan finally paid the entire amount of the assessment to the Department of Finance. After this complaint was filed, respondent returned the sum of $400 to Sullivan in one installment and later returned $100 more but has not made restitution of the remaining $100. There is some evidence that Gibbons authorized respondent to keep that balance as a fee for what work he did on the matter.

The commissioners found respondent guilty of unethical conduct and subject to severe criticism, but recommended no disciplinary action.

On May 8, 1944, the committee on inquiry filed a complaint against respondent based on a complaint made by O. R. Smith and Martha Smith. The situation out of which this complaint arose was that respondent represented William and Martha Smith as defendants in a mortgage foreclosure. In these proceedings William and Martha Smith were ordered to pay O. R. Smith and Douglas Lumber Company the sum of $85 per month as rent on the premises involved, beginning September 1, 1942. The rentals were delivered to respondent in the amounts ordered until August 30, 1943, when a total of $840 had been delivered to him. Of these payments, respondent did not remit $350, nor did he make restitution to his clients until after long and involved litigation and complaint to the bar association, after which the money withheld was paid. The complaint in this instance was jointly made by respondent's clients and the creditor of his clients. The commissioners censured the respondent but ordered the complaint filed without further action.

On August 11, 1947, the committee on inquiry filed its complaint against respondent, based on complaints of one Tom Kringas and the Unity Baptist Church. The facts on these matters disclosed that in the matter of the Tom Kringas complaint, respondent received from John Kringas, complainant's father, the sum of $300, to perfect an appeal from a judgment rendered against Tom Kringas. The appeal was never perfected and the respondent's defense on this complaint was that he returned the $300 to Kringas in cash and that all records concerning the transaction were lost. One Belroy, an attorney, supported this defense with testimony that Kringas told him respondent had returned the money. The commissioners found this charge had not been proved by clear and convincing evidence so as to justify disciplinary action.

In the Unity Baptist Church complaint it appears that the church and one McCall were engaged in a controversy over a claim by McCall in the amount of $1700 for back salary as pastor. Respondent, representing the church, advised the church that he could settle the claim for $500, which sum the church advanced to him in April and June, 1946. It further appeared that respondent received other money from the church with which to pay costs and $102 to apply on his fee. No settlement of the McCall matter was made and a decree was finally entered against the church in the amount of $1938.19, which the church paid in full. The church made repeated requests for the $500 advanced to respondent, without result, after which this complaint was filed. Thereafter, respondent made restitution in the amount of $350, retaining the balance as his fee with consent of the church.

The commissioners, after repeated hearings on this complaint and supplemental hearings on the other complaints found the respondent guilty of sharp practice and repeated conversion of client's funds, with only partial restitution of the funds so converted. They further found respondent's conduct was tainted with extreme moral turpitude and recommended his disbarment.

The record reveals without question that in at least four instances over a period of seven years respondent received funds from the...