FRANCIS DESALES MUDD August 16, 1909 - February 14, 1972 Admitted to the Maryland Bar 1933 Law Practice 1933-1972

In 1933 Adolf Hitler became German Chancellor; forecasting the future, Germany and Japan withdrew from the League of Nations; Franklin D. Roosevelt was President and John N. Garner Vice President of the United States; Prohibition was repealed; the U.S. population was 125,578,763; the cost of a U.S. stamp was $.03; Michigan was the National Collegiate Athletic Association football champion; FM (frequency modulation) was introduced.

In 1933 the population of Charles County Maryland was 16,166 and in Annapolis Maryland on October 11, 1933 Francis DeSales Mudd signed his name to page 470 of the Maryland Court of Appeals' Test Book certifying to his admission to the practice of law before all Courts in the State of Maryland.

Francis DeSales Mudd was born in Bryantown, Maryland on August 16, 1909, the first child of John Francis and Amelia Turner Mudd.

After receiving an undergraduate degree from the Catholic University of America he began the pursuit of his legal career at Georgetown University School of Law where he received his LLB Degree.

DeSales Mudd began the practice of law with his father in LaPlata, Maryland in 1933. Father and son practiced in partnership under the name of Mudd & Mudd Attorneys until the death of John Francis Mudd in 1950.

With other members of the local bar, Mr. Mudd was instrumental in the establishment of the Charles County Bar Association and served as its first President in 1944. Also active in the Association of the Maryland State Bar he served on the Association's Board of Governors, was elected its Vice President in 1957, served as Chairman of the Association's Sections on Taxation and Judicial Administration and was appointed to its Committee on Grievances and its Committee on Judicial Appointments.

In the early days of his practice DeSales Mudd held the Office of Attorney to the County Commissioners of Charles County for 14 years and served as United States Commissioner for six (6) years.

His knowledge and ability in the law were recognized by the American College of Trial Lawyers which elected him to membership in 1964.

In addition to his professional pursuits, Mr. Mudd was active in his community as President and Trustee of Physicians Memorial Hospital, as President of the Smallwood Foundation, as Director of the Charles County Association for Handicapped and Retarded Children. As with the establishment of the Charles County Bar Association, Mr. Mudd was instrumental with others in the formation of the Hawthorne Country Club, where he also served as its' first President. He and his wife Louise Finan Mudd reared six children on their farm (Idaho) located just outside of La Plata. To "Gentleman Farmer Mudd", Idaho was his "Walden Pond". Two of his sons followed in his footsteps in the practice of law.

Following the loss of his father, Mr. Mudd recruited attorney Calvin Maurice Flinn to join him in partnership and continued to practice under the name Mudd & Mudd Attorneys.

DeSales Mudd's business interests were varied and his good counsel and integrity resulted in his being called to serve as Director of Rosecroft Raceway, Pargas, Inc., the C&P Telephone Company, Southern Maryland Oil Company and Maryland National Bank and its predecessor County Trust where he served as Chairman of its Board of Advisors.

Politically he was a member of the Republican Party and although he never chose to seek political office, he was elected as Delegate to the 1964Republican National Convention and later as a Charles County Delegate to the Maryland State Constitutional Convention where he served as Chairman of the Convention's Judiciary Committee from 1967 thru 1969.

The law practice of Mudd & Mudd Attorneys continued to flourish in the 1950s and DeSales Mudd and Maurice Flinn found it necessary to abandon their quarters above the Stumble Inn lunchroom relocating to the Idamont Building which they constructed in 1957 on LaGrange Avenue in LaPlata. A building designed for growth the partnership soon took the unprecedented step of doubling the size of the firm by hiring two graduates from the Georgetown University School of Law. M. Wayne Munday and Lee F. Holdmann joined the firm of Mudd & Mudd Attorney in 1963. With the addition of attorneys Munday and Holdmann, the firm expanded to the largest in the County. At Mr. Mudd's death in 1972 the firm consisted of five lawyers who represented approximately one-fourth of the Membership of the Charles County Bar Association.

In the era of Mr. Mudd's law practice, trials quite often produced "surprises", unlike modern litigation where the unexpected has been virtually eliminated through advances in technology, pretrial discovery procedures and the like. In a high profile trial of its day Mr. Mudd was defending a local LP Gas Company against whom damages were being sought for its alleged negligence in the installation of an appliance. Believing that he was holding the proverbial "smoking gun" the attorney for the plaintiff handed Mr. Mudd's witness a 3 x 5 card displaying the word "WARNING" at the top followed by detailed appliance installation instructions. The plaintiff's attorney anticipated that cross examination of the witness regarding the content of the card would uncover installation deficiencies but encountered Mr. Mudd's witness searching the pockets of his shirt, trousers and jacket only to finally implore that he would need glasses and could not find them. As it was about time for a lunch break, a recess was called with the expectation being that the witness would locate his glasses and that cross examination would continue after lunch.

Rumor has it that the LP Gas Company's appliance installer confessed to his attorney at lunchtime that he was unable to read, that he did not want his shortcoming to be disclosed and that he engaged the ploy of looking for his glasses in an effort to provide his attorney and employer an opportunity to consider the impact of his testimony. The case is reputed to have been settled in Stumble Inn during the lunch break.

Francis DeSales Mudd passed away at age 62 on February 14, 1972.