In Re the Appeal of Rogers

Collins, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. This is an appeal by Wilbur Rogers, a retired Army Colonel, born December 28, 1885, who states that he is a resident of this State, from an adverse report of the Maryland State Board of Law Examiners on his application for admission to the Maryland Bar without examination. Under Rule 14 of the rules adopted by this Court in conformity with the provisions of Sections 1 to 8, inclusive, of Article 10 of the Annotated Code of Maryland, (1939, Flack’s Edition), the Board found that the applicant was of good moral character and that every letter of communication so reported. The Board, however, also found that he had not been engaged in the active and continuous practice of law for five years in the District of Columbia prior to the filing of his application on January 3, 1945, as required by Rule 14 aforesaid.

This rule requires a practitioner to actively and continuously engage as a practitioner or teacher of the law, or judge, in one of the States, (including the District of Columbia), of ⁷³⁹ the United States, for at least five years before the filing of the petition. See Edmonds v. Webb, 182 Md. 60 , 32 A. 2d 702 . The question for our decision is whether from the information before us the petitioner was actively and continuously engaged as a practitioner of law in the District of Columbia for the period from January 3, 1940 to January 3, 1945, when his petition was filed. He had an office in his