Herbert S. Moncier v. Board of Professional Responsibility

406 S.W.3d 139, 2013 WL 2285183, 2013 Tenn. LEXIS 491
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMay 24, 2013
DocketE2012-00340-SC-R3-BP
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 406 S.W.3d 139 (Herbert S. Moncier v. Board of Professional Responsibility) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Herbert S. Moncier v. Board of Professional Responsibility, 406 S.W.3d 139, 2013 WL 2285183, 2013 Tenn. LEXIS 491 (Tenn. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

CORNELIA A. CLARK, J„

delivered the opinion of the Court,

in which GARY R. WADE, C.J., JANICE M. HOLDER, WILLIAM C. KOCH, JR., and SHARON G. LEE, JJ., joined.

An attorney suspended from the practice of law for eleven months and twenty-nine days, with all but forty-five days of the suspension probated, was assessed costs associated with the proceedings that resulted in his suspension pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 9, section 24.3. The attorney timely filed a petition seeking relief from costs, and a panel of the Board of Professional Responsibility convened and conducted a hearing on the petition. The panel denied the petition, and the attorney has appealed to this Court, as permitted by Rule 9, section 24.3. Having carefully and thoroughly considered the record and each of the nine issues raised, we affirm the panel’s decision denying the petition for relief from costs.

Factual and Procedural Background

This case is before us on a post-disciplinary proceeding request for relief from costs. On June 1, 2011, this Court entered an Order of Enforcement suspending the law license of appellant, Herbert S. Moncier, for eleven months and twenty-nine days, with all but forty-five days of the suspension probated. We also ordered Mr. Moncier to have a practice monitor during the probationary period of his suspension, directed him to obtain twelve additional hours of continuing legal education courses in ethics, and assessed costs against him totaling $22,038.32. This assessment was based on Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 9, section 24.3, which requires attorneys suspended as a result of formal disciplinary proceedings to pay the costs of the proceedings but permits such attorneys to seek relief from the assessment by filing a petition with the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility (“Board”). Mr. Moncier petitioned for relief from costs on July 5, 2011. The petition was denied on January 12, 2012. Mr. Moncier then appealed as of right to this Court. Tenn. Sup.Ct. R. 9, § 24.3.

Mr. Moncier’s position before this .Court remains the same as it was before the panel hearing his petition. He alleges that the disciplinary proceedings resulting in his suspension deprived him of a multitude of constitutional, statutory, and rule-based rights; and that requiring him to pay the costs of such a flawed proceeding is fundamentally unfair. To provide context for the issues Mr. Moncier has raised, we begin with an overview of the twisted procedural road this matter has traveled before arriving back in this Court. 1 Addi *144 tional and more specific information will be provided as necessary in the discussion of each issue, although we will not attempt to enumerate each and every pleading that has been filed in this and related proceedings over the past several years. For clarity, we will refer to the disciplinary proceedings that resulted in Mr. Moncier’s suspension as Moncier I and to the proceedings on Mr. Moncier’s petition for relief from costs as Moncier II.

Moncier I

Mr. Moncier was licensed to practice law in Tennessee in 1970. After investigation, a petition for discipline was filed against Mr. Moncier on July 30, 2008, alleging that his conduct while representing a client during a criminal sentencing hearing on November 17, 2006, before Judge J. Ronnie Greer of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee, in the matter of United States v. Vassar, Case No. 2:05-CR-75, violated seven of Tennessee’s Rules of Professional Conduct. 2 See Tenn. Sup.Ct. R. 8, RPC 1.1, 1.7, 3.1, 3.4, 3.5, 4.4, and 8.4. The petition for discipline and attached exhibits comprised approximately 1000 pages. On August 12, 2008, Mr. Moncier filed a response to the petition through counsel.

On September 28, 2009, a supplemental petition for discipline was filed based on the report of a Tennessee trial court judge, Judge Dale C. Workman, of a contempt finding against Mr. Moncier on June 12, 2009, for Mr. Moncier’s conduct in the Circuit Court for Knox County during the proceedings in Daniels v. Grimac, No. 1-386-06. 3 The supplemental petition alleged that Mr. Moncier’s conduct in Daniels violated three Rules of Professional Conduct. Tenn. Sup.Ct. R. 8, RPC 3.4(c), 3.5(e), 8.4(a), (d). On November 20, 2009, Mr. Moncier, through counsel, filed a response to the supplemental petition.

The Board assigned a hearing panel to adjudicate the petitions. See Tenn. Sup. Ct. R. 9, § 8.2. The Moncier I hearing panel conducted a multi-day hearing at which Mr. Moncier was represented by counsel. The hearing adjourned on December 14, 2009. On January 13, 2010, the Moncier I hearing panel issued a forty-four-page judgment finding that Mr. Mon-cier had violated multiple provisions of the Tennessee Rules of Professional Conduct. 4 *145 After considering the aggravating and mitigating factors relevant to punishment, the Moneier I hearing panel imposed a suspension of eleven months and twenty-nine days, with forty-five days of active suspension and the remainder served on probation. 5 The Moneier I hearing panel also directed Mr. Moneier to obtain an additional twelve hours of continuing legal education in ethics and to secure a practice monitor for the probationary period of his suspension.

On March 15, 2010, Mr. Moneier filed in the Circuit Court for Knox County a petition for writ of certiorari seeking judicial review of the Moneier I hearing panel decision pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule 9, section 1.3. At that time, section 1.3 provided, in relevant part, as follows: “The respondent-attorney ... or the Board may have a review of the judgment of a hearing panel in the manner provided by Tenn.Code Ann. § 27-9-101 et seq., except as otherwise provided herein.” 6

On September 8, 2010, the senior judge assigned to hear Mr. Moncier’s appeal, see Tenn. Sup.Ct. R. 9, § 1.5, issued a thirty-eight-page memorandum opinion, which affirmed in part, reversed in part, and remanded the matter to" the Moneier I hearing panel “for reconsideration of the imposed discipline in light of the dismissal of some of the charges.” 7 Mr. Moneier filed a motion to alter or amend, which the trial court denied on October 26, 2010. Neither the Board nor Mr. Moneier sought an appeal to this Court from the trial court’s decision.

On December 20, 2010, before the Man-cier I

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Bluebook (online)
406 S.W.3d 139, 2013 WL 2285183, 2013 Tenn. LEXIS 491, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/herbert-s-moncier-v-board-of-professional-responsibility-tenn-2013.