In re Wyatt

This is a procéeding for the disbarment of an attorney who is accused by a former client of fraudulently appropriating money collected for the latter.

It is alleged, in substance, that Wyatt having a claim for damages, on account of personal injuries, against a railway company, entered into an agreement with Stephens (and other attorneys who are exonerated from all *265 blame in the matter), by which he was empowered to make a settlement of said claim on such terms as he and his associates might consider reasonable, they, the attorneys, to retain as compensation for their -services one-half of the amount collected; that in pursuance of said agreement Stephens settled the claim for five hundred dollars, which sum he received from the corporation on the ninth day of February, 1894; that he represented to Wyatt that he had settled for three hundred dollars and paid him only one hundred and twenty-five dollars, promising, but failing, to pay him the balance of twenty-five dollars; that he afterwards paid to his associates one hundred dollars, retaining for himself two hundred and seventy-five dollars; that his statements in regard to the settlement were willfully false, and made for…