Black v. State Bar

After two hearings before a local administrative committee the Board of Bar Governors has found that petitioner misappropriated funds entrusted to his care by a client and wilfully commingled his own funds with those of a client. The board recommends that petitioner be suspended from the practice of law for three years.

Petitioner was retained in 1944 by the Friesleben Estate Company, a corporation organized in 1899 and dissolved in 1949. Sometime in mid-1944 petitioner was made a director, and in 1946 secretary-treasurer, of the corporation. In these capacities and as counsel, petitioner received $121,263.74 on behalf of the corporation.

At different times he maintained three bank accounts in which corporate funds were held. He had a trustee account at the Crocker Bank in San Francisco, which is not relevant to the questions here at issue. He had a trustee account at the Bank of America, San Francisco Main Branch, from which most of the disbursements of corporate funds were made. Finally, he opened a commercial account in the name of the corporation at the First National Bank of San Mateo. For convenience, the Bank of America account will be referred to as the trustee account.…