In Re Fox

296 So. 2d 701
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 13, 1974
Docket47972
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 296 So. 2d 701 (In Re Fox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Fox, 296 So. 2d 701 (Mich. 1974).

Opinion

296 So.2d 701 (1974)

In re Disbarment of John P. FOX.

No. 47972.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

May 13, 1974.
Rehearing Denied June 4, 1974.

Frank T. Williams, Satterfield, Shell, Williams & Buford, Jackson, L.G. Fant Jr., Fant, Crutcher, Moore & Spencer, Holly Springs, for appellant.

Lester F. Sumners, New Albany, Armis E. Hawkins, James S. Gore, James M. Hood, Jr., Houston, Walter M. O'Barr, John D. Sibley, Kenneth Coleman, Okolona, for appellee.

ROBERTSON, Justice:

On September 2, 1972, six members of the local bar, all in good standing, filed a petition for disbarment against John P. Fox in the Circuit Court of Chickasaw County. Fox was charged with unethical and dishonest conduct arising principally from his handling of collections and stock purchases for his client, David Kouba, while Kouba was a commercial pilot in Laos.

The circuit court sustained a motion for a subpoena duces tecum, and ordered the Bank of Houston to produce all of its records of deposits in, and withdrawals from, the John P. Fox Trust Account from June 1st, 1969, through May 25, 1971.

*702 On October 11, 1972, the Mississippi State Bar petitioned for leave to "Join the Petition to Disbar John P. Fox". The court granted the petition and authorized Honorable Lester F. Sumners of the New Albany bar and Honorable James Hugh Ray of the Tupelo bar to represent the State Bar Association in this matter.

Fox was represented at all hearings by Honorable L.G. Fant, Jr., of the Holly Springs bar and Honorable Frank T. Williams, of the Jackson bar.

This Court commends counsel for both sides for their very able and competent representation of their clients and the great help they have been to this Court in a most difficult matter.

After a great deal of legal skirmishing and numerous hearings on preliminary motions even including a hearing before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Mississippi, and the Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit, New Orleans Louisiana, and after an amendment to the Petition for Disbarment, the hearing of the case on its merits was finally begun on February 15, 1973, and factual testimony was taken through February 21, 1973. The record of the hearing is composed of 1498 pages of testimony in seven bound volumes and nine bound volumes of exhibits.

After this long and protracted hearing, the court on May 30, 1973, found Fox guilty of "improper, unethical and dishonest acts, and a deceitful and dishonest course of conduct" and disbarred him from practicing law, revoked his license and ordered his name stricken from the rolls as a licensed practicing lawyer in the courts of this State.

Fox assigns as error and argues these points in his brief:

1. The proceeding below was void under the Constitution of the United States and the law of the State of Mississippi;

2. Lawyers practice law by right;

3. The subpoena duces tecum was illegal;

4. The judge should have recused himself;

5. The intervention of the Mississippi State Bar was illegal and prejudicial;

6. Disbarment was unwarranted and extreme.

In 1932 the Mississippi Legislature recognized the inherent right of the courts to discipline members of the bar, who by virtue of their oath and office are officers of the court and, therefore, vitally interested in the proper and efficient administration of justice through the courts. (Chapter 121, Laws of 1932). Mississippi Code Annotated section 73-3-155 (1972) a part of the original act of 1932 provides:

"In all disbarment and/or reinstatement proceedings in the chancery or circuit court, a record shall be made of all testimony, evidence and other proofs taken in such proceedings, and upon appeals in such proceedings from the chancery and/or circuit court to the supreme court, the record shall be made up and filed with the supreme court as in other cases. The supreme court shall consider the evidence in the case, as disclosed by the record, and such other evidence as it may deem necessary for the administration of justice, and shall decide all questions of law and fact and render final judgment as to the disbarment, suspension, and/or reinstatement, as the case may be. The rule that the supreme court will not reverse the judgment of the lower court on a question of fact unless it affirmatively appears upon the face of the record that the cause was decided contrary to the evidence shall not apply in cases arising under this article, but the supreme court shall be the final judge of the facts, and the judgment to be rendered thereon." (Emphasis added).

This Court stressed its inherent right and recognized its solemn duty and responsibility *703 as the final judge of the law and the facts and the judgment to be rendered in Mississippi State Bar Association v. Wade, 250 Miss. 625, 167 So.2d 648 (1964); In Re Denman, 224 Miss. 92, 79 So.2d 536 (1955); In Re Quinn's Disbarment, 223 Miss. 660, 78 So.2d 883 (1955); In Re Poole, 222 Miss. 678, 76 So.2d 850 (1955); In Re Higgins, 194 Miss. 838, 13 So.2d 829 (1943).

Back in 1922, this Court in Ex Parte Cashin, 128 Miss. 224, 90 So. 850, said:

"It is a proceeding sui generis, on account of the relation of the attorney to the court; that is, he being an officer of the court, the judicial power lies with the court to proceed, for its own protection, to disbar upon a proper showing made, provided always that the attorney shall have reasonable notice of the charge in order that he may appear and defend, and so that the proceeding will be without oppression or injustice. The court already having jurisdiction of its attorneys, its officers, the citation by the judge was reasonable and sufficient notice to obtain jurisdiction to try appellant and disbar him.
......
"The court has the power to protect itself against an unfit attorney, an officer of the court, and may hear the charges in order to purge the roll of his name, upon reasonable notice given of the time of the hearing of the charges presented for disbarment, thus affording an opportunity to be heard. The exercise of the power of the court in hearing and determining whether the attorney shall be disbarred is not in contravention of the constitutional right of trial by jury. It is an exercise of judicial power in the regulation of the court's own officers, and to protect and preserve a clean and proper functioning of the tribunal." 128 Miss. at 232-234, 90 So. at 851, 852. (Emphasis added).

Again in 1943 in Re Higgins, 194 Miss. 838, 13 So.2d 829, this Court in positive and unmistakeable terms asserted its inherent jurisdiction over members of the legal profession as its own officers when it said:

"We will assume, for the purposes of this appeal, that there was no quorum present at the said meeting of the commissioners and that the action directed to be taken was without the authority of the board of commissioners as such, and will, therefore, approach the contention presented by the motion to dismiss as if the proceedings to disbar were instituted by attorneys of good standing at the bar on their own initiative, and as if the court had recognized them as such, rather than as those proceeding in the name and by the authority of the State Bar; and this presents at once the question whether the statutory method set up by Chapter 121, Laws 1932, is the exclusive means by or through which an attorney may be disbarred in this state.

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Bluebook (online)
296 So. 2d 701, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-fox-miss-1974.