Opinion ID: 2277038
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Nature and Circumstances of Original Misconduct

Text: Murray was admitted to the Bar of this Court on 13 November 1952. By 1971, he had become (in the Review Board's words) a well-respected, competent attorney and a partner in the Baltimore County firm then known as Cook, Murray, Howard, Downes & Tracy. In the year last-mentioned, Murray was representing Elizabeth Jessop, widow of Holmes C. Jessop, and personal representative of her late husband's estate. On or about 27 October 1971, Mrs. Jessop delivered to Murray a check in the amount of $10,000, drawn on the estate, signed by her as personal representative, and payable to Murray. It seems that this check represented money payable to the Mayor and City council of Baltimore. As the Review Board found, Murray appropriated the $10,000 check to his own use by depositing the check in his personal account in the First National Bank of Maryland.... He used the funds for personal purposes, mostly to pay overdue income taxes. He never disclosed the misappropriation to Mrs. Jessop, or to the person who became successor personal representative after Mrs. Jessop died on 24 December 1971. In 1976, Murray was still a partner in the Cook firm. He was co-personal representative of the estate of Louis J. Appel. On or about 27 October of that year, Murray forged the other personal representative's name to two estate checks, one for $1,000 and one for $9,000, and deposited them in his (Murray's) personal account. Murray used this money to pay overdue income taxes. A partner in the Cook firm inadvertently discovered the misappropriations in 1977. When Murray was confronted with the facts, he immediately admitted his guilt in both transactions and, as we have recounted, forthwith consented to disbarment. Thereafter, he pled guilty to counts of forgery and misappropriation of funds. He was sentenced to incarceration for three years, suspended in favor of probation for a like period, subject to a condition that he pay $2,000 in court costs. Later, on 20 October 1977, the Circuit Court for Baltimore County struck out the guilty finding and imposed probation before judgment. The court terminated probation on 3 May 1979. These are the bare facts of the transgressions that resulted in Murray's disbarment. We next examine the circumstances surrounding those misdeeds. Murray's own account is that he let family finances get out of hand. Unwilling to admit to his wife that his respectable but modest earnings could not finance such things as private schooling for their two children, he failed to pay estimated taxes, allowing tax liabilities to accumulate until they became so pressing that on the two occasions mentioned, he resorted to stealing to satisfy the tax collector. As Dr. Jonas Rappeport [2] put it, Murray was unable to admit to his wife that he could not earn the reasonable income they required and that he could not face his partners with his problems. [3] During this period of stress, Murray indulged in increasingly heavy drinking. He has never claimed, however, any causal connection between the drinking and his misconduct. The Review Board found that Murray, in order to maintain an established lifestyle, which was not extravagant, permitted false pride to overwhelm better judgment and rather than approach his wife or ... friends with his personal problems, resorted to ... misappropriation. Nevertheless, it also found that Murray's misconduct and the circumstances surrounding [it] were egregious.... We agree. [M]isappropriation by an attorney of funds of others entrusted to his care, be the amount small or large, is of great concern and represents the gravest form of professional misconduct. In re Loker, 285 Md. 645, 651, 403 A.2d 1269, 1272 (1979). See Attorney Griev. Comm'n v. Ezrin, 312 Md. 603, 608-609, 541 A.2d 966, 969 (1988); Attorney Griev. Comm'n v. Bloom, 306 Md. 609, 611, 510 A.2d 589, 590 (1986); Barton I, supra, 273 Md. at 380, 329 A.2d at 104. Loker involved a lawyer who was disbarred in 1970. He had been convicted of embezzlement and larceny from Leonardtown, of which municipality he had been an official. The defalcations apparently occurred over a period of 12 years or more and involved almost $98,000. 285 Md. at 646, 403 A.2d at 1269. In 1979, we declined to reinstate Loker, pointing out, among other things, that [t]his was no isolated incident.... [I]t was spread over a number of years and included a substantial sum of money. Id. at 651-652, 403 A.2d at 1272. In fact, Loker controlled the books and accounts of Leonardtown; he was the town's treasurer, clerk, and attorney, and managed the town's affairs from his law office. Loker v. State, 2 Md. App. 1, 16-19, 233 A.2d 342, 352-354 (1967), aff'd, 250 Md. 677, 245 A.2d 814 (1968), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 1082, 89 S.Ct. 862, 21 L.Ed.2d 774 (1969). Taking advantage of these positions of trust, he schemed to take the town's money over a long period of years. Another case involving deliberate scheming is that of Francis X. Dippel, reported as In re Raimondi and Dippel, supra . [4] Dippel was disbarred in 1963 and sought reinstatement in 1979. He had been convicted, on guilty pleas, of six counts of embezzlement and served about 21 months in the Maryland Penitentiary. Dippel, 285 Md. at 611, 403 A.2d at 1236. Dippel's convictions and disbarment were precipitated by investigations ... concerning a scheme devised by [Dippel] and an accomplice ... who was also a member of the Maryland Bar, whereby they would file documents with the Orphans' Court of Baltimore City to gain control of estates of deceased resident aliens, then divest the estates of all capital assets to their own use.... The scheme included in some cases the preparation of forged Wills leaving substantial parts of the estate to fictitious heirs, the payment of fictitious claims, and the filing of spurious and false documents. Id. at 610-611, 403 A.2d at 1236 (quoting findings of the Inquiry Panel) [brackets in opinion]. Dippel's activities affected six estates and transferred over $71,000 from those estates to him and his accomplice. Id. at 611, 403 A.2d at 1236. We characterized Dippel's conduct thus: ... Dippel made use of his legal training and knowledge to steal from certain estates. Without any apparent reason other than sheer greed, Dippel engaged in a calculated campaign of theft. [He was earning over $80,000 a year in terms of 1979 dollars.] Thus, greed alone would seem to have been the only reason behind his crime, a point illustrated by his statement that it was easy to steal by these forgeries and other manipulations. Id. at 619, 403 A.2d at 1240. Like Loker and Dippel, Murray stole  and stole from clients. We note that Murray's two thefts were conducted over a lesser period of time than those involved in the two earlier cases, produced a smaller amount of money, and do not appear to have been part of an elaborate and ongoing clandestine scheme. Even a former thief may be reinstated if he or she makes a clear and convincing showing of rehabilitation and of legal competence, borne out by ... applicant's conduct over a long period of time.... Barton II, 291 Md. at 67, 432 A.2d at 1337. [5] Barton II teaches that rehabilitation may occur, even after the grave offense of stealing from clients. We turn now to the question of whether Murray's proof is sufficient in this respect.