In the Matter of Guy-Serge Semionov Douzan

• Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
• Decided: November 27, 2024
• Docket: SJC-13522
• Status: Published

Opinion

SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT

IN THE MATTER OF GUY-SERGE SEMIONOV DOUZAN

Docket:	SJC-13522
Dates:	November 27, 2024
Present:
County:
Keywords:	Attorney at Law, Admission to practice. Board of Bar Examiners. Supreme Judicial Court, Membership in the bar.

     The petitioner, Guy-Serge Semionov Douzan, appeals from a judgment of the county court denying relief from a report of nonqualification for admission to the Massachusetts bar.  We affirm.

      Douzan filed a petition for admission to the bar in December 2022.  He sat for the bar examination in February 2023 and did not achieve a passing score.  His score also did not entitle him to a "reread" of his written answers.  The Board of Bar Examiners (board) accordingly filed a report of nonqualification.  This court dismissed his petition for admission to the bar pursuant to S.J.C. Rule 3:01, § 5.3, as appearing in 478 Mass. 1301 (2018).  Douzan filed a petition seeking relief from the report of nonqualification.  He alleged that his answers to three essay questions had been graded incorrectly, that he was entitled to either full or partial credit as to each answer, and that if these answers had been graded correctly, he would have received a passing score on the examination.  The dismissal of Douzan's petition was stayed, and his request for relief was referred to the single justice.  The single justice, after reviewing the materials submitted by Douzan and by the board, denied relief without a hearing.  There was no error.

      As an applicant for the Massachusetts bar, Douzan "is entitled to due process of law in the testing of his qualifications."  Mead, petitioner, 372 Mass. 253, 256, cert. denied, 434 U.S. 858 (1977).  However, he is not entitled to a rereading or a regrading of his examination.  Id.  "Nor is [he] entitled, in an attempt to show that his examination was wrongly graded, to the due process provided by an adversary hearing with the right to introduce evidence before an impartial fact finder."  Id.  "Courts have consistently refused to regrade examinations, usually on the premise that the right of reexamination is a sufficient guaranty of fairness."  Id.  Douzan has an "unqualified right" to be reexamined.  Id.  Accordingly, the single justice neither committed an error of law nor otherwise abused his discretion by denying relief.

Judgment affirmed.

      The case was submitted on briefs.

      Guy-Serge Semionov Douzan, pro se.

      Carol A. Kelly for Board of Bar Examiners.