Brown v. Colegio De Abogados De Puerto Rico

579 F. Supp. 2d 211, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77631, 2008 WL 4427952
CourtDistrict Court, D. Puerto Rico
DecidedSeptember 26, 2008
DocketCivil 06-1645 (JP)
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 579 F. Supp. 2d 211 (Brown v. Colegio De Abogados De Puerto Rico) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Colegio De Abogados De Puerto Rico, 579 F. Supp. 2d 211, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77631, 2008 WL 4427952 (prd 2008).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

JAIME PIERAS, JR., Senior District Judge.

Before the Court is Plaintiffs Herbert W. Brown, III, José L. Ubarri, and David W. Roman's (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) motion for summary judgment (Nos. 13 and 14) and Defendant Colegio de Abogados (the “Colegio”) opposition thereto (No. 70), as well as Plaintiffs’ reply brief (No. 73). Plaintiffs filed this action pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983”) for violations of their rights under the First, Fifth, and Fourteenth Amendments of United States Constitution. Plaintiffs allege that the Colegio, an integrated bar association 1 in Puerto Rico, used approximately forty percent of each attorney’s annual dues to purchase a compulsory life insurance policy. Plaintiffs argue that this expenditure was not germane to the purposes justifying an integrated bar association. Plaintiffs now move the Court for summary judgment, arguing that the Colegio is barred by the doctrine of non-mutual collateral estoppel from re-litigating the constitutionality of its compulsory life insurance policy since an earlier decision by this Court found the policy to be unconstitutional. For the reasons stated herein, Plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment (Nos. 13 and 14) is hereby GRANTED.

I. MATERIAL FACTS NOT IN GENUINE ISSUE OR DISPUTE

The following facts are deemed uncontested by the Court because they were included in the motion for summary judgment and opposition and were agreed upon, or they were properly supported by *214 evidence and not genuinely opposed. 2

1. Since the Colegio is an integrated bar association, all members of the plaintiff class are required to be members of the Colegio as a precondition to practicing law in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
2. Member of the Colegio are required to pay annual dues in the amount of $200.00.
3. A portion of the annual dues charged by the Colegio is used to pay for a compulsory life insurance plan.
4. For the year 2006, the compulsory life insurance plan cost each attorney $78.00 of his or her $200.00 annual dues — almost forty percent of the total dues.
5. In 1994, Carlos A. Romero, Jr. (“Romero”) brought suit in the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico asserting, inter alia, that the Colegio’s mandatory life insurance program is not germane to the purposes that justify an integrated bar association.
6. On February 25, 1999, the United States District Court for the District of Puerto Rico granted summary judgment in the Colegio’s favor.
7. Romero appealed the grant of summary judgment to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the First Circuit reversed and remanded the case back to the District Court, with instructions to certify a question to the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.
8. On remand from the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, the District Court certified the following question to the Puerto Rico Supreme Court: “Is the Colegio de Abo-gados de Puerto Rico authorized to compel members to purchase life insurance coverage through the Colegio as a condition of membership in the bar of Puerto Rico?”
9. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico answered the certified question in the affirmative, stating that the Colegio is authorized, pursuant to Puerto Rico law, to compel its members to pay for life insurance from their annual dues.
10. The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, however, did not address Romero’s arguments pursuant to the United States Constitution regarding the Co-legio’s mandatory life insurance plan.
11. On October 9, 2002, after eight years of litigation, the United States District Court (J. Saris, sitting by designation), issued a Memorandum and Order concluding that “... the mandatory life insurance plan is not germane [to the purposes of the Colegio], and that Romero may not be forced to pay for it through his membership dues.”
12. The District Court granted Romero a permanent injunction against the Colegio prohibiting the Colegio from collecting “that portion of [Romero’s] annual dues attributable to the Cole-gio’s mandatory group life insurance program.”
13. The District Court also awarded Romero damages as a result of the Colegio’s unconstitutional taking of his money to pay for the compulsory life *215 insurance policy, as well as interest and attorneys’ fees.
14. The Colegio sought to appeal the District Court’s judgment, but later voluntarily dismissed the appeal before it reached the briefing stage.
15. The Colegio was aware of the District Court’s October 9, 2002, Memorandum and Order and ensuing Judgment in the Romero case upon notification, since it was a party to that litigation.
16. The Colegio did not specifically notify its membership of the District Court’s ruling and of the unconstitutionality of its compulsory life insurance program, however the decision was mentioned in the Treasurer’s Report for the years 2003 and 2004.
17. On November 30, 2005, a group of five attorneys wrote a letter to the Colegio, through its President Julio Fontanet, Esq., directing the Colegio to stop charging them that portion of their annual dues attributable to the mandatory life insurance program.
18. On February 2, 2006, the Colegio sent a letter in response stating that it would return to each of the five attorneys the $78.00 used for the purchase of compulsory life insurance, under three “conditions”:
(a) The authorization was for the current year (2006), because the Cole-gio’s Board supposedly could not bind the new Board that would take office in September 2006. As a result, the Colegio stated, the attorneys would be forced to make additional requests come dues-paying time for the 2007 fiscal year and every year thereafter;
(b) The Colegio’s action supposedly could not be deemed as a precedent for future cases;
(c)The premium for the compulsory life insurance in 2006 was $78.00, and could change the following year.
19. On February 23, 2006, the group of five attorneys wrote the Colegio and rejected each and every one of the preconditions that the Colegio wished to impose upon them before it returned to each of them the $78.00 used for the purchase of compulsory life insurance.
20.

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Related

Maldonado v. Municipality of Barceloneta
682 F. Supp. 2d 109 (D. Puerto Rico, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
579 F. Supp. 2d 211, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 77631, 2008 WL 4427952, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-colegio-de-abogados-de-puerto-rico-prd-2008.