In Re Craig

WASTE, C. J.

The State Bar of California, a public corporation created by the Act of March 31, 1927 (Stats. 1927, p. 38), filed in this court its petition praying, under section 289 of the Code of Civil Procedure, that Gavin W. Craig, formerly an Associate Justice of the District Court of Appeal of the Second Appellate District of the State of California, be permanently disbarred from the practice of the law in this state. A certified copy of a record of conviction of said Craig of a crime involving moral turpitude was filed with the petition.

In the petition it was alleged that said Gavin W. Craig was admitted to practice by the Supreme Court of the State of California on or about April 9, 1901, and ever since had been and at the time of the filing of the petition was an attorney and counselor at law licensed to practice in all the courts of this state. It was further alleged that theretofore, and on or about May 8, 1935, said Gavin W. Craig was in-dieted in the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of California, charged with the crime of felony, to wit, a violation of section 88 of title 18 of the United States Code, in that he, with certain other defendants therein named, did conspire to obstruct and impede the due administration of justice; that on due trial on the charges contained in said indictment the jury returned a verdict of guilty, and judgment was thereupon entered assessing a fine of one thousand dollars and ordering that the defendants be confined in jail for the period of one year; that thereupon an action in

quo warranto

was commenced by the attorney-general of the state of California in the name of The People, based on section 996, subdivision 8, of the Political Code, praying for a judgment declaring and decreeing that the defend

[95]

ant’s office as such Associate Justice of the District Court of Appeal of the Second Appellate District had become vacant, and praying that he be ousted and excluded therefrom; that defendant Craig answered the complaint, denying and putting in issue the allegations thereof, and alleging that he had never been impeached or removed by legislative action from office as such Associate Justice, nor otherwise in the manner provided by law, nor at all; that judgment in said cause was given and entered that the office of Associate Justice of the District Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District, Division Two, had become vacant by reason of the conviction of the defendant Gavin W. Craig of a felony; that said Gavin W. Craig had not, since the date of the conviction, had any lawful right to any public civil office, and that he unlawfully held and exercised the office of Associate Justice of the District Court of Appeal of the Second Appellate District, and continued to hold the same without right.