State ex rel. Grievance Committee of Oregon State Bar Ass'n v. Woerndle

• Decision Date: 10 October 1922
• Citation: 209 P. 604,109 Or. 461
• Parties: STATE EX REL. v. WOERNDLE. GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE OF OREGON STATE BAR ASS'N ET AL.
• Court: Oregon Supreme Court

209 P. 604

109 Or. 461

STATE EX REL. GRIEVANCE COMMITTEE OF OREGON STATE BAR ASS'N ET AL. v. WOERNDLE.

Supreme Court of Oregon

October 10, 1922

In Banc.

Disbarment proceeding by the State of Oregon, on the relation of the Grievance Committee of the Oregon State Bar Association and the Grievance Committee and Chancellors of the Multnomah Bar Association of the State of Oregon, against Joseph Woerndle. On demurrer to petition. Demurrer overruled.

Bradley A. Ewers, of Portlland, for plaintiffs.

C. T Haas, of Portland, for defendant.

McCOURT J.

This is a disbarment proceeding. The members of the grievance committee of the State Bar Association and the members of the grievance committee and chancellors of the Multnomah Bar Association join in presenting and prosecuting the accusation against the defendant. By a demurrer interposed thereto defendant asserts that the facts alleged in the accusation do not disclose any legal grounds for his disbarment.

It is alleged in the accusation that the defendant was born in Germany in the year 1880, and came to this country in the year 1897, and was on the 23d day of August 1904, by order of a competent court, admitted to full citizenship in the United States of America; that defendant is and has been, since the year 1910, an attorney at law residing in the city of Portland, Multnomah county, Or., and admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of the state of Oregon; that in the year 1914, defendant applied in writing to the Secretary of State of the United States for a passport, and directed that, upon issuance of the passport applied for, the same be sent to Joseph Woerndle, care of Waldorf Astoria Hotel, New York; that defendant accompanied his application for a passport with a certificate of his citizenship and the fee required by law, together with an affidavit, subscribed and sworn to by him before a notary public, which affidavit is set out in the accusation.

It is further alleged in the accusation that, pursuant to the application made by defendant, a passport was duly and regularly issued about October 9, 1914, to Joseph Woerndle, by the proper officers of the Department of State, and was sent by them as directed to the said Joseph Woerndle, care of Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York; that the passport so issued and delivered was there-after called for and delivered to Hans W. Boehn, who, with the consent and connivance of defendant, took and assumed the name of Joseph Woerndle; that for the purpose of aiding Boehn in perpetrating the deception mentioned and those later carried out by him, defendant delivered to Boehn a patent for lands that had been issued to defendant; that at and long prior to October 3, 1914, the date of the application of defendant for a passport, Hans W. Boehn, above mentioned, was a citizen of the German Empire and a subject of its ruler, and was a resident and inhabitant of Multnomah county, state of Oregon; that on October 3, 1914, and for some time prior thereto, a state of war existed between the Imperial German government, allied with the Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian government, and the republic of France allied with the kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the kingdom of Belgium and the Imperial government of Russia; that Hans W. Boehn was an officer of the German army, and from October 3, 1914, and thereafter, was acting as agent of the Imperial German government in protecting its interests and furthering its warfare against countries with which the United States, as a nation, was at peace, but with which the Imperial German government and Imperial and Royal Austro-Hungarian government were at war, which facts were known to the defendant; that, at the time the defendant prepared, signed, and swore to the affidavit presented by him to the Department of State, neither the affidavit nor the application for passport were made or filed for the purpose of enabling defendant to go abroad temporarily, or at all, but were made and filed by defendant with the intention and purpose of supplying documents and evidence to Hans W. Boehn, that would enable the latter to travel in safety from New York to Berlin, Germany, and return, under the protection of the government of the United States, and that the said Hans W. Boehn did use the passport, so issued to defendant, for the purposes mentioned, and that, by virtue of the passport so issued, and the passports thereafter issued to Hans W. Boehn upon applications made by him in the name of Joseph Woerndle, and supported by the citizenship papers and land patent of defendant, Hans W. Boehn traveled safely in various European countries then at war with the Imperial German government, in which the said Hans W. Boehn could not have traveled without arrest and incarceration as a prisoner of war; and that thereby defendant openly and knowingly aided and assisted Hans W. Boehn in perpetrating frauds upon the government of the United States in securing its protection abroad for one not a citizen thereof, and in perpetrating frauds upon other nations and countries with which the United States was at peace, and the Imperial German government and its allies were at war.

It is made the duty of the Supreme Court to disbar any member of the bar of this state upon proper proceedings for that purpose, "* * * whenever it shall appear to that court that his conduct has been such that if he were then applying for admission to the bar his application should be denied." Section 1091, Or. L.

The above section of the Code is a statutory declaration of the power inherent in every court to strike the name of an attorney from its roll, who has been guilty of conduct or acts committed inside or outside of his professional employment, which show him to be corrupt, dishonest, or untrustworthy. State...