Smith v. Board of Com'rs of Alabama State Bar

225 So. 2d 829, 284 Ala. 420, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1102
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJuly 10, 1969
Docket4 Div. 198
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 225 So. 2d 829 (Smith v. Board of Com'rs of Alabama State Bar) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Board of Com'rs of Alabama State Bar, 225 So. 2d 829, 284 Ala. 420, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1102 (Ala. 1969).

Opinion

*423 PER CURIAM.

This is a review of disciplinary proceedings instituted by the Grievance Committee of the Alabama State Bar against Jack W. Smith, a duly licensed attorney at law in this state.

The hearing conducted before the Board of Commissioners of the Alabama State Bar resulted in a resolution of guilty, and of disbarment.

The complaint filed by the Grievance Committee contained four charges.

Charge 1 in essence charges Smith with a violation of Section A, Rule 25(a) (b) (c) of the Amended Rules governing the conduct of attorneys in Alabama. The charge alleges that within three years prior to the filing of the complaint (20 November 1963) Smith had served as attorney for parties in more than 1000 divorce proceedings in the Inferior Court of Geneva County, Alabama; that he had knowledge or reasonable cause to believe that the parties in many of these cases were not bona fide residents of Alabama, and falsely represented facts to the Inferior Court of Geneva County in order to induce favorable action thereon by the court.

Section A, Rule 25 (a) (b) and (c) is set forth verbatim in Charge 1 and is as follows:

“No person heretofore or hereafter admitted to practice law in Alabama shall
(a) Knowingly or wilfully make any false representations of fact to any judge, court or jury to induce a favorable action or ruling by either;
(b) File or prosecute or aid in the filing or prosecution of any suit, cross bill, or proceeding seeking a divorce in a court in Alabama as attorney or solicitor for a complainant or cross complainant therein or serve as referring or forwarding attorney for such complainant or cross complainant with knowledge or reasonable cause to believe that neither party to such suit, cross bill or proceeding is at the time of the filing of the bill of complaint therein, a bona fide resident of the State of Alabama;
(c) While acting as attorney for either party in any suit for divorce in any Court in Alabama represent to the Court or conspire with any party, attorney, or person to represent to the Court that either party to such suit is a bona fide resident of Alabama, knowing such representation to be false.”

Charge 2 also alleges a violation of Rule 25, supra, but goes further and sets forth a conspiracy to violate the rule. In this connection Charge 2 alleges that beginning with the month of August 1962, to the date of the filing of the complaint, Jack W. Smith, Edward C. Boswell, his partner, Ned Moore, an attorney of Opp, Alabama, and Ramsey Neil Metcalf, an attorney of Geneva, Alabama, conspired for the purpose of preventing true and accurate records to be kept relating to divorce cases filed in the Inferior Court of Geneva County, Alabama by said attorneys in a manner intended to conceal the participation of Smith in numerous divorce cases filed in said court by Smith while acting as attorney for the parties.

The charge further avers that the above named attorneys, who were then engaged in handling a great number of divorce cases in the Inferior Court of Geneva County, in excess of two hundred cases per month, acting in conspiracy with W. R. Draughan, Clerk and Register of said court, and Comer *424 Grantham, Deputy Clerk of said court, set up a system of docketing said cases wherein the cases filed by said attorneys would be kept under a separate docket numbered B, C, and D, and all other cases to be kept in a separate docket lettered A.

That in furtherance of said conspiracy, and to conceal the name of Jack W. Smith on the records of the court in such divorce proceedings, many of the pleadings and docket entries failed to show the name of the attorney appearing for any party in divorce proceedings, and,

In furtherance of said conspiracy the records kept in the office of the Clerk and Register of said court were secreted from the public and kept in an index system in separate docket books and held under lock and key in a storage room on the second floor of the. courthouse continuously from 1 September 1962 to 1 October 1963.

Admittedly, Charge 2 is ineptly drawn in that while it purportedly charges a violation of Rule 25A it goes further and sets up a conspiracy to violate such rule. The conspiracy set up in detail being a confederation between four attorneys, including the petitioner, and the Clerk and Register, and the Deputy Clerk and Register of the Inferior Court of Geneva County to set up a docketing system in such manner as to prevent the disclosure of the vast number of divorce cases being processed in the Inferior Court of Geneva County. It is significant that this secret docketing system was set up shortly after the visit to Geneva of the Proctor of the State Bar.

In a conspiracy case, in determining the sufficiency of the indictment, the court will look to the four corners of the indictment and not to a particular paragraph. The. facts alleged and not the statute mentioned by the pleader determines what statute is violated. See 15A C.J.S. Conspiracy p. 843.

Charge 2 sufficiently charged a conspiracy to do a wrongful act and adequately informed the petitioner as to the wrongful conspiracy into which he had entered and the overt acts incident thereto. As stated in In re McKay, 280 Ala. 174, 191 So.2d 1:

“The question for determination in disbarment or disciplinary cases is the fundamental one of whether an attorney who is charged with professional dereliction should be permitted to continue in his office. Basically, the proceeding is an inquiry into the conduct of an attorney to determine whether action should be taken by a court to protect the public or the dignity of the court. See Thornton on Attorneys at Law, Vol. 2, Sec. 865, and 7 Am.Jur.2d Attorneys at Law, Sec. 60.

“An attorney must be accorded due process in disbarment and disciplinary proceedings, and the requirements of due process are met when the attorney is served with charges or specifications reasonably informing him of the charges against him and the attorney is thereafter accorded a hearing with an opportunity to defend. See Am.Jur., supra, Sec. 64.

“The above requirements of due process being met, formal and technical pleadings are not essential, nor do they have any place in a disbarment proceeding. In Re Fite, 228 Ala. 4, 152 So. 246; McCord v. State, 220 Ala. 466, 126 So. 873; Ex parte Thompson, 228 Ala. 113, 152 So. 229, 107 A.L.R. 671; Ex parte Grace, 244 Ala. 267, 13 So.2d 178.”

As further stated in McCord v. State, 220 Ala. 466, 126 So. 873:

“Formal and technical pleading is not essential to this proceeding.” (Disbarment proceeding.)

Charge 3 charges Smith with violation of Section A, Rule 16 pertaining to an attorney introducing, or offering to introduce, testimony which he knows to be false. This charge also adopts the averments of Charge 2 relative to the conspiracy averments.

Charge 4 avers a violation of Section A, Rule 36, which provides that no person li *425 censed to practice law in Alabama shall be guilty of any conduct unbecoming an attorney.

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Bluebook (online)
225 So. 2d 829, 284 Ala. 420, 1969 Ala. LEXIS 1102, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-board-of-comrs-of-alabama-state-bar-ala-1969.