Greening v. Moran

739 F. Supp. 1244, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7961, 1990 WL 87566
CourtDistrict Court, C.D. Illinois
DecidedJune 21, 1990
DocketNo. 90-3071
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 739 F. Supp. 1244 (Greening v. Moran) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, C.D. Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greening v. Moran, 739 F. Supp. 1244, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7961, 1990 WL 87566 (C.D. Ill. 1990).

Opinion

OPINION

RICHARD MILLS, District Judge:

Why is this case before a federal court?

We can find no good answer to that question.

Accordingly, the case is dismissed.

We visit the pleadings in this case to consider the Defendants’ motions to dismiss, each brought pursuant to Rules 12(b)(1) and (b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure; by virtue of this posture, we take each and every one of Plaintiff’s allegations to be true, Lathrop v. Donohue, 367 U.S. 820, 845, 81 S.Ct. 1826, 1839, 6 L.Ed.2d 1191 (1961).

Yet, even with this benefit of the doubt, Plaintiff is entitled to no relief in this forum.

Facts

The Plaintiff, Alfred H. Greening, Jr., was admitted to the Bar of Illinois in May 1949, at which time his name was included on the master roll of attorneys which is kept by the Clerk of the Supreme Court of Illinois. His name stayed on the master roll until he became embroiled in the dispute giving rise to both this suit and certain disciplinary actions currently pending before the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission (ARDC).

It all started, apparently, back in 1978, when Greening began fooling around with the state’s rules concerning to whom bar registration dues are to be paid. Supreme Court Rule 756(a), Ill.Rev.Stat. ch. 110A, ¶ 756(a), provides that (in general), “every attorney admitted to practice law in this State shall register and pay an annual registration fee to the Commission [i.e. the ARDC] on or before the first day of January.” The rule continues that in the event the registration fee is not paid by the first of February, the attorney’s name is to be removed from the master roll; moreover, once his name is removed from the master roll the attorney is subject to being held in contempt of court for unauthorized practice of law if he should persist in either practicing law or holding himself out as being authorized to practice law in Illinois. Subsection (e) of the Rule, however, allows a relatively painless redemption for those whose names are stricken from the master roll for no reason other than failure to pay: these attorneys “may be reinstated as a matter of course upon registering and paying the registration fee” in arrears at that time, plus $10 for each month the fee wasn’t paid.

In 1978 Greening started testing S.Ct. R. 756 by sending his check not to the ARDC, but instead to either the Supreme Court itself, the Treasurer of the State of Illinois for the use of the Supreme Court, or the Clerk of the Supreme Court. All these checks were accepted and negotiated, and [1247]*1247Greening’s name remained on the master roll until 1989. In December of 1988, the registration fee applicable to Greening had been increased by the Supreme Court from $100.00 to $140.001, upon which, to quote from the complaint, “plaintiff determined that the funds being raised [by the registration fees] would not be deposited in the State Treasury by the Clerk as required by law ... and refused to remit any further checks that would be deposited by the [ARDC] to its separate account.”

Predictably, the ARDC did not sit idle and abdicate its S.Ct. R. 756 duties; instead, it sent to Greening a notice (received in March 1989) informing him that his name had been removed from the master roll, but that he could pay up to make things right. Greening would have none of that, though — he steadfastly refused to pay, and engaged in a battle by correspondence with the ARDC asserting his right to practice law in Illinois without being registered with the ARDC.

Meantime, the ARDC contacted the chief judge of the state circuit court in Greening’s venue (the Seventh Judicial Circuit) and informed him that Greening’s name (as well as several other attorneys’ names) had been stricken from the master roll. The ARDC also corresponded with Greening, stating its disagreement with his legal analysis on the question of whether he had to pay to practice.

Finally on June 12, 1989, Greening partly relented — he forwarded his registration form to the ARDC, but he still refused to remit the required money; instead, he sent a letter (with copies to each Illinois Supreme Court Justice) setting forth his interpretation of the authorities he had previously cited to the ARDC to support his right not to pay. The letter included the statement that:

I am a licensed attorney and my name appears on the master roll maintained by the Supreme Court Clerk. My name can only be removed from that roll for mal-conduct. I do not think you can show me any authority which shows the failure to pay this arbitrary fee into private hands is malconduct.

Greening’s actions prompted reactions. ARDC Administrator John C. O’Malley filed a report with the Supreme Court on July 27, 1989, amended on August 2, 1989, which requested that the Court order Greening to show cause why he should not be held in contempt and/or be suspended from practice for not paying the fee, and which noted that Greening had continued to hold himself out as being authorized to practice law even though his name had been stricken from the master roll. On August 7, 1989, in case M.R. 5196, Justice Howard C. Ryan ruled Greening to show cause why he should not be suspended from practice in accordance with the Administrator’s report, and which required a response by September 11, 1989.

Greening blinked — well, almost. He sent to the Supreme Court, on September 11 and in response to the rule to show cause, a cashier’s check which would cover the entire registration fee then in arrears; the trouble was, he once again made the check payable to the Supreme Court, rather than to the appropriate payee, the ARDC.

The Supreme Court was not amused; on September 27, 1989, it ordered the Clerk to return the cashier’s check to Greening, and continued the rule to show cause until October 4, 1989, in order to give Greening “the opportunity to make payment of the registration fee and penalty to the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission.”

Greening inexplicably declined to remake his check; instead, according to the complaint, he placed the check “in escrow ... subject only to the control of the Chief Justice as constitutional administrator for the Supreme Court.” He also began to contact courts he was then appearing before to inform them of his dispute with the ARDC. He was currently involved with an estate administration before Judge Simon L. Friedman of the Seventh Judicial Circuit; when Judge Friedman was advised of the spat Greening was involved in, Judge Friedman entered an order advising Green[1248]*1248ing that “he was not allowed to practice before [him] until such time as he got his matter with the Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission straightened out.”

Greening was at that time also a counsel of record in a bankruptcy appeal pending in this Court, Kurtz v. Scully, No. 86-3235. He sent letters to this Court, which did not reflect that opposing counsel had been sent copies, and which referred to Greening’s ARDC dispute in case M.R. 5916. In response to these ex parte letters, this Court entered an order on October 25, 1989, commanding Greening to refrain from any further ex parte

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Bluebook (online)
739 F. Supp. 1244, 1990 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7961, 1990 WL 87566, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greening-v-moran-ilcd-1990.