Balogh v. Jackson

Citations

• 272 Pa. 482
• 116 A. 377
• 22 A.L.R. 1497
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 852

Syllabus

<p>Attorneys-at-law — Retention of client’s money — Breach of fidelity to client — Disbarment—Trial by jury — Acts of April lk, 188k, P. L. 85k, and June 16,1886, P. L. 798.</p> <p>1. In a disbarment proceeding, an attorney is not entitled to a trial by jury.</p> <p>2. Where an attorney-at-law receives from a client a large sum of money under the allegation that it was necessary to secure bail, and subsequently acquiesces in the quashing of a writ of habeas corpus, without consulting his client and without his knowledge, and there is no evidence of the commission of any crime by the client, it is proper for the court, under the Act of April 14, 1884, P. L. 354, summarily to disbar the attorney without the allowance of a jury trial; and this is the ease although the attorney claims that he retained the money as a fee.</p> <p>3. In such case there would be nothing for a jury to pass upon; for, whatever fee the attorney might have been entitled to claim, if he had acted according to proper standards of professional honor, was forfeited by his fraudulent conduct and lack of fidelity to his client.</p>