Title: The Florida Bar v. Columbia Title of Florida
Citation: 197 So. 2d 3
Docket Number: 34841
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: March 29, 1967

197 So. 2d 3 (1967)
THE FLORIDA BAR, Petitioner,
v.
COLUMBIA TITLE OF FLORIDA, a Florida Corporation, and Francis X. Bradley, Respondents.
No. 34841.

Supreme Court of Florida.
March 29, 1967.
Burton Young, No. Miami Beach, and Richard McFarlain, Miami, for The Florida Bar, petitioner.
George N. Jahn, Miami, for respondents.
PER CURIAM.
The Florida Bar petitioned this court for rule to show cause why respondents should not be held in contempt of court for engaging in the unauthorized practice of law. The petition charges generally that respondents, Columbia Title of Florida and Francis X. Bradley, president of Columbia Title, though not members of The Florida Bar, engaged in closing real estate transactions, representing both buyers and sellers including the preparation of legal documents. (More particular facts appear in the report of the referee, set out below.)
Rule issued and respondents' response disclaimed any intention of practicing law. Thereupon this court entered its order appointing as Referee the Honorable Paul D. Barns, Justice of the Supreme Court of Florida, Retired. We set out verbatim the Report of the Referee:
We approve and adopt the report of the referee. The acts complained of do constitute the unauthorized practice of law.[1]
It is therefore the order of this court that the practices delineated in the petition be and the same are hereby enjoined.
It is so ordered.
THORNAL, C.J., and THOMAS, ROBERTS, CALDWELL and ERVIN, JJ., concur.
[1]  Cooperman v. West Coast Title Co., 75 So. 2d 818 (Fla. 1954); Keyes Co. v. Dade County Bar Ass'n., 46 So. 2d 605 (Fla. 1950); see also, Hexter Title &amp; Abstract Co. v. Grievance Committee, 142 Tex. 506, 179 S.W.2d 946, 159 A.L.R. 268 (1944).