Mayo v. State Bar

Opinion

THE COURT. We review, and approve, the recommendation of the majority of the Disciplinary Board of the State Bar (board) that petitioner Mike Mayo should be suspended from the practice of law for four months.

Petitioner was admitted to practice in January 1953 and has had no prior disciplinary record. After a lengthy hearing, the board found that petitioner had represented a client in the probate administration of his client’s deceased sister’s estate without disclosing either to the client or to the probate court that petitioner owed money to the estate, representing funds borrowed by petitioner from the deceased during her lifetime. [74]Petitioner’s sole contention is that the evidence presented to the board was insufficient to support its conclusion that he had borrowed the money.

Our function in State Bar disciplinary proceedings is well established. We make independent findings of fact on review of the entire record and exercise an independent judgment as to the discipline to be imposed. (See Brotsky v. State Bar (1962) 57 Cal.2d 287, 301 [19 Cal.Rptr. 153, 368 P.2d 697, 94 A.L.R.2d 1310].) Our review of the record in the present case indicates that there was ample evidence to support the conclusion of the board.

In March of 1966 Mrs. Peggy McDonnell told her accountant, Rudolph Silva, that she was about to loan petitioner, her attorney, $18,000 to be evidenced by an unsecured promissory note providing for monthly payments of $500, and bearing interest at 10 percent. She further advised Silva that petitioner had said that he was going to use the money to purchase stock in a corporation which owned the building in which his law office was located.

On April 12, 1966, two checks totaling $14,695 were deposited in petitioner’s general commercial bank account. One check was drawn on Pacific Savings & Loan in the sum of $5,000, payable to Mrs. McDonnell and showing an endorsement by her to the order of Mike Mayo. Beneath her endorsement was a stamped endorsement payable to the Bank of Pico Rivera for deposit only to the account of Mike Mayo. The second check was in the amount of $9,695.72 drawn on Atlantic Savings & Loan, bearing a similar endorsement to the order of Mike Mayo by Mrs. McDonnell below which was a stamped endorsement to petitioner’s account. Both checks bore the date of April 11, 1966, and both were deposited on April 12, 1966, in Mayo’s general commercial bank account.