Court Opinion

ID: 9753975
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 19:36:39.364346+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:27:45.794563
License: Public Domain

Smith, J.,

dissenting:

The amount of gross income here involved for the three years in question was well in excess of a quarter of a million dollars. As Chief Judge Murphy pointed out in his dissent (in which Judge Digges and I joined) in Attorney Grievance Comm’n v. Walman, 280 Md. 453, 374 A.2d 354 (1977):
"While fraud may not be an actual element of the crime of which Walman was convicted, it is clear, as the majority acknowledges, that a voluntary, intentional violation of the known duty to make a federal income tax return is requisite to conviction (as contrasted with failure to file through accident, mistake or other innocent cause).” 280 Md. at 467-68.
Notwithstanding the determination by the trial judge that no moral turpitude was involved in this case, I would hold *323that there was and thus that Gilland should be disbarred. There is a more compelling reason for disbarment, however.
In this case the trial judge found "any medical condition [to be] of limited significance since it did not interfere with [Gilland’s] functioning as an attorney,” adding that Gilland "maintained his law practice during the period in question.” Gilland has referred to his psychiatrist’s testimony that he met the American Law Institute test of not being criminally responsible because of a substantial mental disease or defect, etc.
This man’s psychiatrist said that Gilland was not able to meet deadlines. If Gilland is unable to meet deadlines in his own affairs, then he is unfit to be entrusted with the affairs of others.
I continue to adhere to the views I expressed in my dissent in Walman (in which Chief Judge Murphy and Judge Digges joined):
"When a lawyer so neglects his own affairs as to fail for three successive years to do that which every citizen of this republic knows that he must do if his income is more than a mere pittance, namely to file an income tax return, then I conclude that he has demonstrated that he is not the type of person to whom we may in confidence entrust the handling of the affairs of others. I would disbar. Therefore the above is an additional reason for disbarment.” 280 Md. at 471.
I am authorized to state that Judge Digges joins in the views here expressed.