Porter Hamilton, the American lawyer in Cebu
L. Porter Hamilton was admitted to the Philippine Bar on August 30, 1910 (it was the Americans in 1901 that they regulated and reorganized the practice of law and the admission of lawyers through bar examinations, the privilege to become a lawyer were given then to Filipinos and Americans).
Porter Hamilton who after passing the bar examinations practiced his profession in the Court of First Instance of Cebu (now Regional Trial Court) and in other courts of these Islands, disbarment proceedings instituted against him.
The charges were filed by the fiscal upon the order of the Honorable Adolph Wislizenus, Judge of the Eleventh Judicial District, and the formal accusation sets out four separate counts of professional misconduct, as follows:
1. Atty. Hamilton, being such counsel for the plaintiff Luciano Andrada, in a civil case, defended and counseled, without the latter's consent, the defendants Isabelo Alburo (a businessman who once managed the cockpit owned by Don Escolastico Rosales Duterte and Don Florentino Rallos, the First Municipal President of Cebu) in the same manner or business.
2. Atty. Hamilton, having received from the plaintiff Luciano Andrada, various documents among which were vouchers or notes signed by some municipal policemen of Cebu and counter-signed by the defendant Isabelo Alburo, did maliciously and willfully keep and deny that he had received said documents, this for the purpose of thwarting the complaint of Andrada preparedy by himself, as had undertaken the defense of Isabelo Alburo.
3. That Atty. Hamilton, being such in various affairs of Isabelo Alburo, betrayed his client by instigating complaints against the latter, solely in order that his client should entrust him with the defense of said complaints instigated by him.
4. That Atty. Hamilton, on April 8, 1911, proposed to S.L. Joseph of Cebu that he be employed as attorney for the concern known as the S.L. Joseph Lumber Yard., with a salary of P1,200 a year, under a threat to compel Mr. Joseph to accept his proposition.
Atty. Hamilton answered formally and denied the allegations in a hearing before Honorable Jose C. Abreu (admitted to the Bar on July 26, 1900) who acted as Special Judge for the disbarment proceedings. On January 22, 1912, the decision was for Hamilton to be suspended from the practice of law and the case went to the Supreme Court for its review.
The Supreme Court upon review of the case said that the conduct of Atty. Hamilton of being a lawyer of the plaintiff and at the same acted as counsel for the defendant was reprehensible in the highest degree.
The Supreme Court also noted that the letter sent by Atty. Hamilton was in the nature of a threat sent to influence Mr. Joseph in his proposition to be employed by the latter.
The Supreme Court on January 17, 1913 directed that proper orders be entered suspending Hamilton from the practice of law for a period of six years from the date of his original suspension (January 22, 1912) in the Court of First Instance.
The Supreme Court explained that under the provisions of the Spanish Penal Code (it was only revised on December 8, 1930, it took effect on January 1, 1932) with reference to disbarment:
"This is not a proceeding by way of punishment, though the deprivation of the privileges of an attorney may be a matter of serious importance to a practitioner. It is a measure necessary to the protection of the public, who have a right to expect that courts will be vigilant in withholding, and, if already given, withdrawing, their certificates of qualification and character, upon which the public rely."
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