Newark evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1909-1916, 1914-03-14
COURT D|SBARS
CARL RA|SCH
AS A FORGER
Jersey City Lawyer Loses Right
to Practise for Filing Alleged
False Answer.
Especial to the Evening start

TRENTON, March 14.-Chancellor
Walker today exercised probably the
least frequently used prerogative of
his office, wdhen he issued an order
disbarring Carl Raisch, of Jersey City,
as solicitor in Chancery
Only three solicitors have been dis
barred by the chancellor in the last
thirty years. Usually solicitors are
barred from practise in Chancery by
the Supreme Court.
The order dlsbarring Raisch was en-
tered on advice of Vice-Chancellor
Stevenson. Raisch began a suit for
divorce for a Mrs. Mattner. Then he
is accused of drawing in his own
handwriting an answer for the hus-
band and signing the name of an
other attorney to it. The answer it
was said, entered no defense and was
put in without the knowledge of the
husband
Thirty years ago Chancellor Run
yon dlsbarred a solicitor named Ed
munds for forging a divorce decree.
No similar action was taken in
Chancery until recently, when Thomas
f. Bedle was disbarred by the Su-
preme Court. Chancellor Walker is
sued an order disbarring him also
from practise in Chancery.
In his opinion in the Raisch case
Chancellor Walker brings out the fol-
lowing points,
The court of chancery of New Jer-
Sey has power to try a solicitor of the
court for malpractice and misbehavior
in his office as solicitor, and if he be
found guilty, has power to debar such
convicted solicitor from practise, and
prohibit him from exercising the func-
of Of
The office of solicitor in chancery
Is distinct from the office of an attor-
neY-at-law. Attorney law and soli-
citors in chancery are officers of the
courts respectively in which they
serve, and are not officers of the State.
and they are not removable by i'm
parchment or by the action of the
Governor who in form appoints them
They are removable by the judicial
action OF the courts whose officers
they are.
when the constitution of 1874 was
framed. and the governor ceased to
be the chancellor, the appointment of
attorneys, solicitors and proctors was
not vested in the courts, as was done
in New York in HI, when the same
constitutional change was made in
the courts of that State.
Judge Paterson's practise act and
lis act prescribing certain oaths. re-
naming substantially unchanged to-
Gay, relate to the independent exist.
ence of the two offices of attorney-at-
law and solicitor in chancery, and
the control each court has over its
own officers.
II the Court of Chancery of New
Jersey cannot discipline solicitors, its
own officers. there is no way pro-
vided by law by which that court can
communicate a case of malprac tise
to the Supreme Court or make it the
duty of that court to act in the prem
Uses.
An inherent power of the Court OF
Chancery is not lost by mere disuse
during a period, however long, dur
| ing which there was practically nc
occasion for it's exercise
Nothing but plain provisions of the
constitution or of constitutional leg.
| islation should be deemed to have
| deprived the Court of Chancery OF
| New Jersey of the power of dlsciplin.
| ing its own solicitors, pro practise
| ''under the direction" of that court
when they are guilty of malpractis,
as solicitors, or to leave the Court
of Chancery dependent upon the Su.
| preme Court for the discharge of thi.
! important function relating to its
own machinery and its own interna
affairs.