Court Opinion

ID: 9791793
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:18:07.331026+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:38.614003
License: Public Domain

Rosellini, J.
(dissenting) — The nature of count 3 and the evidence concerning it, which is based on hearsay and statements later repudiated, does tend to prejudice anyone reading the record, and this is amply illustrated by the tenor of the cross-examination of witnesses and of the respondent. The prejudice engendered permeates the whole record, and I cannot help but feel that it influenced the consideration given to the other counts by the trial committee and Board of Governors, and also was considered by them in determining the penalty which they recommended should be imposed upon the respondent.
There is a truism in the trial of any cause that “once a bell is rung, it cannot be unrung,” or as Omar Khayyam states it in The Rubaiyat:
“The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ, Moves on: nor all thy Piety nor Wit Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line, Nor all thy Tears wash out a word of it.”
This court should therefore be very careful to disregard this count and the evidence introduced under it, and endeavor to treat the respondent the same as others guilty of similar misconduct have been treated.
In this case Della Harper did receive a home and good medical care during her life as was agreed by the contract between her and the respondent. All the funds coming into the respondent’s possession were accounted for. None of the funds were used by the respondent for any of the services that he rendered in the probate case or in the care of Miss Harper.
Since the respondent did claim property of his client to which he was not entitled, just as did the respondent attorney in In re Simmons, 59 Wn. (2d) 689, 369 P. (2d) 947, the penalty imposed therein should be likewise imposed in this instance.
*557I would suspend the respondent íor a period of one year.
Hunter and Hamilton, JJ., concur with Rosellini, J.
July 11, 1963. Petition for rehearing denied.