In Re Merritt

391 So. 2d 440
Supreme Court of Louisiana·Decided November 21, 1980·No. 80-K-1836·Published·Cited by 25 cases

Opinion

391 So.2d 440 (1980)

In re Clyde D. MERRITT.

No. 80-K-1836.

Supreme Court of Louisiana.

November 21, 1980.

*441 Dwight M. Doskey, New Orleans, for relator, Clyde D. Merritt.

William J. Guste, Jr., Atty. Gen., Barbara Rutledge, Asst. Atty. Gen., Harry F. Connick, Dist. Atty., Donald Giglio, Louise Korns, Asst. Dist. Attys., for State, respondent.

CALOGERO, Justice.

We review here the trial court's finding an attorney in direct contempt of court for his failure to appear for that court's ruling on a writ of habeas corpus which he had filed on behalf of a client. Finding this case to be controlled by Kidd v. Caldwell, 371 So.2d 247 (La.1979), we reverse and remand for a constructive contempt hearing on a rule to show cause before another judge.

On August 5, 1980, petitioner Clyde Merritt, an attorney with the Orleans Indigent Defender Program, entered Section "B" of the Orleans Criminal District Court for the purpose of filing two petitions for habeas corpus on behalf of a client. After some discussion with the court, petitioner eventually filed only one of the petitions and asked the court to set a date and time for its decision. Judge Braniff set the habeas claim for decision the following morning prior to 10:00 a. m. Petitioner informed the judge that he had a trial scheduled in another section of Criminal District Court but that he would be in Section "B" for the court's decision.[1]

When petitioner failed to appear by 10:15 a. m. on the following day, Judge Braniff issued an attachment for his arrest. Approximately five minutes later, Deputy Sheriff Jeff Ray, Captain, found petitioner *442 leaving a concession stand on another floor of the building. Petitioner refused to go with the officer to Judge Braniff's court. The deputy handcuffed and led petitioner to Section "B". Before Judge Braniff, petitioner explained that his subpoena for Section "F" had been for 9:30 instead of 10:00 a. m. and that he thus was in Section "F" rather than Section "B" that morning. The court refused to accept this explanation, found petitioner guilty of contempt and sentenced him to pay a fine of $100.00, in default of which petitioner was to serve twenty-four hours in the parish prison.

Pursuant to an order, petitioner, accompanied by counsel, appeared in Judge Braniff's court on August 7, 1980. The court informed counsel that his client had already been held in contempt of court, but that a note of evidence would be taken to establish for the record the basis of the contempt of the previous day. Defense counsel filed a motion to recuse the trial judge, which motion was denied. Defense counsel further objected to the taking of evidence on a matter as to which the verdict had already been returned. When this objection was overruled, counsel and petitioner elected, under protest, to remain at the proceedings but to limit their participation to cross-examination of the court's witnesses. Judge Braniff called two witnesses to testify and then concluded the hearing by making a short statement.

While petitioner assigns four errors as grounds for reversal of his conviction, the main issue presented by this writ application is whether an attorney's failure to appear in court constitutes a direct or constructive contempt and correspondingly whether or not the trial judge is permitted to find the attorney in contempt without the provoking of a rule to show cause.

We recently answered this very question in Kidd v. Caldwell, surpa. Reasoning essentially along the lines of the discussion which follows, we held that an attorney's failure to appear in court is at most constructive contempt.

The authority to punish for contempt of court falls within the inherent power of a court to aid in the exercise of its jurisdiction and to enforce its lawful orders. Both the Code of Civil Procedure and the Code of Criminal Procedure classify contempt as one of two types: direct or constructive. Article 21 of the Code of Criminal Procedure defines direct contempt as that committed in the immediate view and presence of the court and of which it has personal knowledge. Also defined as direct contempt are the contumacious failure to comply with a subpoena, summons or order to appear in court, proof of service of which appears of record, and contumacious failure to comply with an order sequestering a witness. The article contains an illustrative, but not exclusive, list of examples of direct contempt.[2] Constructive contempt of *443 court is any contempt other than direct contempt, according to C.Cr.P. art. 23. That article also contains an illustrative list of examples.[3]

Concerning Kidd's failure to reappear in court following a recess, we noted that the act was not one of those mentioned in the list of direct contempts. Although the list is illustrative, in our opinion, the explicit inclusions in the listing tended to exclude certain other acts by implication. We reasoned that the listed examples seemed intended to apply to witnesses and defendants, not attorneys. In support of this conclusion, we observe that the Code, in Article 25, contains a special penalty provision for contempt by attorneys.[4]

The list of constructive contempts in article 23 includes "willful neglect or violation of duty by a clerk, sheriff, or other person elected, appointed, or employed to assist the court in the administration of justice;" and "willful disobedience of any lawful judgment, or mandate, writ, or process of court." In our view, the inclusion of these items as constructive contempt gave added weight to their implied exclusion as direct contempt in the illustrative listing of the latter. The general rule that criminal statutes are to be strictly construed was the final consideration in our determination that "the absence of an attorney, where the intention might be other than contumacious and where a wide range of defenses involving out-of-court circumstances might be presented, is much more susceptible of the article 24 constructive-contempt procedure than of the summary direct-contempt procedure." 371 So.2d at 255.

In holding petitioner in the instant case guilty of contempt of court, Judge Braniff told Mr. Merritt that he should have been in Judge Braniff's section of court rather than in another section at the appointed time.

*444 This indicates that the behavior prompting the contempt holding was Mr. Merritt's failure to appear in Section "B". In brief, the state suggests an alternative description of the behavior as a "violation of a rule of court adopted to maintain order and decorum in the courtroom." C.Cr.P. art. 21(8).[5]

Accepting arguendo the state's alternative rationale for the contempt, we then find another overlap between the direct and constructive contempt articles. (See Kidd, supra.) The quoted section of article 21 is analogous to the "willful disobedience of any lawful judgment, order, mandate, writ, or process of court" portion of article 23. As in Kidd, we hold that the inclusion of behavior as constructive contempt implies the exclusion of this same behavior as direct contempt. In so holding, we follow the mandate of R.S. 14:3 that criminal statutes are to be strictly construed.

Our finding that the present conduct falls within the scope of constructive contempt entitles petitioner to be tried on a rule to show cause that expressly alleges the facts constituting the contempt. The petitioner must be served with a certified copy of the motion and of the rule to show cause.

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In Re Merritt, 391 So. 2d 440 (La. 1980).

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