Court Opinion

ID: 9791829
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:18:41.817342+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:38.784364
License: Public Domain

*564Ott, C. J.
(dissenting) — John Caughlan was charged in a federal court with the crime of wilfully failing to file federal income tax returns for the years 1955 and 1956. He pleaded not guilty to both counts of the information. He was convicted by a jury and sentenced to serve 8 months on each count, in the federal penitentiary at McNeil Island, the sentences to run concurrently.
In addition to this conviction, the hearing panel of the Washington State Bar Association found the following facts, as charged in the second item of the formal complaint, to be true:
“The following is a summation of the record of Mr. Caugh-lan in the filing of U. S. income tax returns and payment of income tax from 1946 to 1961:
“(1) On September 20, 1948, he filed returns for the calendar years 1946, and 1947, and paid the income tax due in full;
“ (2) On September 2, 1952, he filed returns for the calendar years 1948, 1949, and 1950, without accompanying payment of the tax due;
“(3) On June 22, 1953, he filed returns for the calendar years 1951 and 1952, with accompanying payment of the tax due;
“ (4) On April 27, 1954 he filed a return for 1953 without accompanying payment of the tax due;
“(5) On April 26, 1955 he filed a return for the calendar year 1954, with full payment of the tax due;
“ (6) He failed to file the income tax returns for the years 1955 and 1956;
“ (7) On April 24,1958 he filed a return for the year 1957, with a check in payment of the tax due; the check was dishonored on presentation at the bank on which it was drawn;
“(8) On July 16, 1959 he filed a return for the calendar year 1958, without accompanying payment of the tax due;
“(9) On June 3, 1960 he filed a return for the calendar year 1959, without accompanying payment of the tax due;
“ (10) On May 12, 1961 he filed a return for the calendar year 1960, without accompanying payment of the tax due.”
How long an attorney should be suspended from the practice of law, after he has been convicted and imprisoned for his criminal, unlawful, and dishonest conduct, rests within *565the sound discretion of this court. In re Greiner, ante p. 306, 309, 378 P. (2d) 456 (1963), and cases cited.
In my opinion, the evidence in this case warrants a suspension of not less than 90 days. In re Greiner, supra; In re Carson, ante p. 304, 378 P. (2d) 450 (1963); In re Case, 59 Wn. (2d) 181, 367 P. (2d) 121 (1961); In re Molthan, 52 Wn. (2d) 560, 327 P. (2d) 427 (1958).
Weaver, J., concurs with Ott, C. J.