In Re Application of Lamotte

WORKS, J.

This is an application for the reinstatement of an attorney at law after disbarment. The rules governing such matters and the procedure to be followed in disposing of them in this particular division of the district court of appeal are defined and laid down in the opinion in

In re Stevens,

197 Cal. 408 [241 Pac. 88], and in our opinion

In re Cate, ante,

p. 495- [247 Pac. 231].

Under these decisions it becomes our duty, in the present proceeding, to determine two questions: 1. What are the moral qualifications of petitioner, as touching his fitness to resume the work of the legal profession

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2. What are his mental qualifications, as affecting the same matter? We are able to answer these questions without making the reference which we found necessary in each of the three proceedings that were dealt with in the opinion

In re Cate, supra.

Petitioner was disbarred pursuant to that portion of the statute which provides for the removal of an attorney upon his “conviction of a felony or misdemeanor involving moral turpitude, in which case the record of conviction shall be conclusive evidence” (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 287, subd. 1).

[735]

The crime that resulted in the disbarment was not one which in any way concerned petitioner’s duty as a lawyer, nor was it in any way connected with his law practice. His moral character, therefore, has not been tainted with any turpitude involving loss or damage to any of that large class who find it necessary to employ the services of members of the legal profession. At the time of his disbarment petitioner had been engaged in the practice of the profession principally in the county of Riverside, in which jurisdiction he had maintained his law office and in which he resided. Some time b-'nre the filing of petitioner’s application for reinstatement he requested the Riverside County Bar Association to appoint a committee to investigate his “activities and conduct” with a view of obtaining from the association a recommendation for his reinstatement. The committee was appointed and the investigation was made, with the result that the committee recommended to the association that it further the desire of petitioner to procure a reinstatement at the bar. Accordingly, at a regular meeting of the association held thereafter a resolution was adopted, by a unanimous vote, which recites that the investigation conducted by the committee was thorough and painstaking, that it covered “the past and present activities and conduct” of petitioner, and that it appears to the association that petitioner, by his exemplary conduct, has proven his fitness to be reinstated as a lawyer. The resolution then recommends to this court that the reinstatement be made.