Prince George's County Bar Ass'n v. Vance

Levine, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. In 1948, respondent, James Franklin Vance, now 56 years of age, was admitted to the Bar of the District of Columbia and of the State of Arkansas. At that time, he was an officer in the U. S. Naval Reserve, having previously served on active duty from 1943 to 1946. He later served on active duty again for two years during the Korean war.

When not on active duty, and while a member of the Naval Reserve, he was also a civilian employee of the Federal Government. In 1963, having completed 20 years of military service, he entered upon inactive status. In so doing, he established his qualification for retirement from the Naval Reserve at age 60. From 1964 until February 1973, he was employed as a civil servant with the Department of Defense as an instructor at its Computer Institute at the Navy Station Annex, located at Anacostia, adjacent to the Bolling Field Air Force Base in the District of Columbia.

Following his admission to the Maryland Bar in 1965, respondent undertook the part-time practice of law in Prince George’s County where he had resided for a number of years. In 1972, he commenced to formulate plans for retirement from the Civil Service sometime during the year ⁸¹ 1973, with the intention of simultaneously embarking upon the full-time practice of law. Although his retirement on February 26, 1973, closely followed the events which have led to these proceedings, there is nothing in the record to indicate that his timing was anything but a coincidence. With the commencement of his inactive status in 1963, one of the privileges which he surrendered, until attaining full retirement from the military at age 60, was access to the Post Exchange.

On or about December 30, 1972, respondent removed from a file cabinet, located in a nearby office at the Computer Institute, a carbon copy of a set of orders issued to one of the persons attending the school. He then erased the name of that subject, substituted his own and reproduced it on a copy machine so as to indicate that it was a copy of orders assigning him to active duty at the school. Thereafter, on two to four occasions over the next several weeks, he used these simulated orders to make minor purchases at a branch office of the Bolling Field Post Exchange. The total amount of these purchases ranged from $12 to $14, and effected for respondent a savings of about $1.00.

On the last occasion that such a purchase was made, respondent was detained by military authorities and was consequently charged in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia with violating Title 22, § 1401 of the District of Columbia Code, a statutory form of forgery. Thereafter, the United States Attorney declined to prosecute, entering a nolle prosequi, but brought the matter to the attention of the Maryland State Bar Association. This action resulted in a hearing by a panel of three members of the Grievance Committee of the Prince George’s County Bar Association (the Bar Association), and eventuated in the filing of “Charges” in this Court by that association. In accordance with Maryland Rule BV3 b, the charges were transmitted to the Circuit Court for Prince George’s County, to be heard by a panel of three judges of the Seventh Judicial Circuit.

Based upon a transcript of the proceedings before the Grievance Committee, including testimony of the ⁸² respondent, and additional testimony which he gave before the court, the panel concluded: “. . . [T]hat this act was relatively trivial, it was petty, picayune, undignified, immoral and dishonest, but it was not done in the performance of Mr. Vance’s duties as a member of the Bar and had no direct relation to his practice of the law. “There has been some publicity, and undoubtedly the defendant has been subjected to a great deal of embarrassment. His attitude, unlike that of the defendant in the Fellner case, which was referred to in argument, 213 Md. 243 , showed complete candor and forthrightness as to the act or acts that he had committed and, secondly, his remorse is most abject. We believe that not only was he completely frank about what was done but also that he is deeply sorry.” Thereupon, the circuit judges recommended that respondent “be reprimanded” because they were of the view that “the circumstances [did] not warrant more severe disciplinary action.” The matter reaches us on exceptions to that recommendation filed by the Bar Association pursuant to Rule BV5 b 2 and respondent’s answer thereto. The thrust of the Bar Association’s exceptions is that a reprimand would not be “an adequate sanction,” and since the conduct of respondent was felonious, “fraudulent, deceitful and dishonest,” disbarment is in order.

In urging that respondent be disbarred, the Bar Association contends that he did commit the offense proscribed by Title 22, § 1401 of the District of Columbia Code, and was thus guilty of crimes involving moral turpitude, viz., forgery and uttering. Respondent, on the other hand, has not sought to controvert the facts