Case Name: ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE COMMISSION OF MARYLAND v. GERALD NEY KLAUBER
Court: Court of Appeals of Maryland
Jurisdiction: Maryland
Decision Date: 1978-10-10
Citations: 283 Md. 597
Docket Number: Misc. Docket (Subtitle BV) No. 4
Parties: ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE COMMISSION OF MARYLAND v. GERALD NEY KLAUBER
Judges: The cause was argued before Smith, Digges, Levine, Eldridge, Orth and Cole, JJ., and Richard P. Gilbert, Chief Judge of the Court of Special Appeals, specially assigned.
Reporter: Maryland Reports
Volume: 283
Pages: 597–610

Head Matter:
ATTORNEY GRIEVANCE COMMISSION OF MARYLAND v. GERALD NEY KLAUBER
[Misc. Docket (Subtitle BV) No. 4,
September Term, 1978.]
Decided October 10, 1978.
The cause was argued before Smith, Digges, Levine, Eldridge, Orth and Cole, JJ., and Richard P. Gilbert, Chief Judge of the Court of Special Appeals, specially assigned.
Michael E. Marr for respondent.
James A. Frost, Assistant Bar Counsel, for petitioner.

Opinion:
Smith, J.,
delivered the opinion of the Court. Gilbert, J., filed an opinion concurring in the result at page 600 infra. Okth, J., filed a dissenting opinion at page 603 infra.
Bar Counsel acting on behalf of the Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland filed a petition on June 28, 1978 seeking suspension of Respondent, Gerald Ney Klauber, under Maryland Rule BV16 as then in effect. This suspension was sought by virtue of the final judgment entered in the United States District Court for the District of Maryland on June 22, 1978 convicting Klauber of violating 18 U.S.C. § 1341, mail fraud, and 18 U.S.C. § Í962, racketeering. He has appealed this conviction.
Rule BV16 as it then existed provided that we might suspend an attorney, pending our further order, who was convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude, with further provision as to the procedure to be followed upon the completion of any appeals the attorney might have filed. In Attorney Grievance Comm'n v. Reamer, 281 Md. 323, 379 A. 2d 171 (1977), Chief Judge Murphy said for the Court:
"We need not decide in this case whether a conviction for mail fraud, in any and all circumstances, will always involve moral turpitude. It is enough that we determine in this case, from a review of the allegations of the indictment and the District Court's charge to the jury, and the jury's verdict, that the crimes of which Reamer was convicted plainly involved moral turpitude." Id. at 328.
In that case the jury instructions made it abundantly clear that to convict the jury must find that acts were committed with an actual intent to defraud. We said:
"The jury's finding of guilt of mail fraud and aiding and abetting in a mail fraud under these instructions, in light of the allegations of the indictment that he procured false and fraudulent medical reports and bills, clearly indicates that Reamer's convictions involved moral turpitude within the contemplation of Rule BV16." Id. at 329-30.
The instruction to the jury in this case apparently did not limit a conviction to a finding of moral turpitude as in Reamer. The jury was told:
"The Government has introduced evidence which it claims shows that the defendant paid individuals known as runners and MTA bus drivers moneys in exchange for those individuals referring to him clients who had been injured in automobile and bus accidents. The use of such individuals is relevant in this case if you find that the procurement of clients by such persons was part of the scheme as alleged in the indictment.
"The law of the State of Maryland prohibits an attorney from compensating or agreeing to compensate another person for procuring clients. Furthermore, the Code of Professional Responsibility which applies to attorneys practicing in the State of Maryland provides in part as follows:
'A lawyer should not compensate or give anything of value to a person or organization to recommend or secure his employment by a client, or as a reward for having made a recommendation resulting in his employment by a client. Likewise, a lawyer shall not accept employment when he knows or it is obvious that the person who seeks his service does so as a result of conduct described herein.'
"If you should find that as a part of a scheme to defraud, the defendant paid certain individuals for the purpose of procuring as clients persons who had been involved in automobile and bus accidents, and if you should further find that the defendant knew or should have known that such payments were violations of Maryland law or violations of the Code of Professional Responsibility applicable to Maryland lawyers, then you may consider such violation as evidence of the intent with which the defendant acted in this case."
It may follow from this instruction that the jury could have found Klauber guilty without finding an intent on his part to defraud. His appeal is still pending. Hence we cannot say at this point in time, particularly before the Fourth Circuit speaks, that Klauber necessarily stands convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude.
It must be borne in mind that Rule BV16 does not make suspension mandatory, but makes it discretionary in this Court pending resolution of an appeal. In such a proceeding we do not have a full record before us. There has been no testimony adduced under Rule BV10, and hence no finding of fact under Rule BV11, as to whether moral turpitude was involved. Since suspension under Rule BV16, as it was then worded, could occur only upon conviction of a crime involving moral turpitude and, under the same rule, we were dealing with suspension as a preliminary matter, without a full record, we held as we did in Reamer because our preliminary determination awaited final resolution of the moral turpitude issue upon appellate review of the conviction. It was our intention in Reamer under the rule as it then existed to make plain that we would not — and should not — suspend unless it was absolutely clear that the crime involved moral turpitude. In Reamer we came to recognize the difficulties inherent in this rule involving moral turpitude. It was for that reason that on May 5, 1978, effective July 1, 1978, we amended Rule BV16 to permit suspension of an attorney upon conviction of certain crimes which include a conviction "in any federal court of a felony, unless the same crime also is a crime under Maryland law and is not a felony----"
The petition is denied. In denying the petition in this instance we do not pass upon whether Klauber would be subject to suspension upon the timely filing of a petition under the revised Rule BV16 since the matter is not before ,us.
It is so ordered.