State Ex Rel. Dabney v. Ledbetter

1932 OK 229, 9 P.2d 728, 156 Okla. 23, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 171
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 22, 1932
Docket18323
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 1932 OK 229 (State Ex Rel. Dabney v. Ledbetter) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Dabney v. Ledbetter, 1932 OK 229, 9 P.2d 728, 156 Okla. 23, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 171 (Okla. 1932).

Opinion

SWINDALL, J.

On October 11, 1927, an opinion was filed in this case sustaining some of the charges presented by the petitioner and dismissing others. 127 Okla. 85, 260 P. 454. On January 16, 1932, the respondent filed a petition praying for an order of this court directing the clerk of this court to enroll his name among the regular practicing lawyers of the state courts and that he may be accorded all the rights, privileges, and immunities enjoyed by attorneys at law licensed by this court, or in the alternative that this court reinstate the petitioner, H. A. Ledbetter, as a regularly licensed attorney at law, or refer the matter to the Board of Governors of the Oklahoma State Bar for its consideration. On March 7, 1932, the respondent, H. A. Led-better, moved the court to permit him to withdraw from the conisideraltiion of the court all that part of the petition filed herein by him on January 10, 1932, wherein the respondent requests this honorable court to find and order that the action of the Supreme Court of the United States (See 50 Sup. Ct. 349) in the matter of the disbarment of said respondent in said court is binding upon this court and said respondent respectfully requests this honorable court to pass upon the question of reinstatement presented in said petition or refer the same to the State Bar of the State of Oklahoma as prayed in his original petition. On the same date W. A. Ledbetter filed in said cause his *24 affidavit which, omitting the formal parts, is as follows:

' “W. A. Ledbetter, after being first duly sworn, on oath states: that he was one of the attorneys' for H. A. Ledbetter, from the beginning to the end of the disbarment proceedings in the Supreme Court of the State of Oklahoma; that on one occasion while said proceedings were pending in said court, Mr. Justice Riley inquired whether or not the respondent had or would seek to disqualify any members of the court on the trial of said proceedings, and that said W. A. Ledbetter in reply said that the respondent had not requested, and did not intend to request any member of the court to disqualify."

After the respondent was disbarred in the Supreme Court of the state, proceedings were had in the Supreme Court of the United States relative to the disbarment of the respondent conformably to the rules of that court. The Supreme Court) of the Unjited States appointed a committee of three members of the bar of that court to investigate and recommend to that court whether or not the respondent should be disbarred from practicing in that court). After making an investigation the committee was of the opinion that the respondent had been deprived of due process under the Constitution of the United States by reason of the fact that, in its opinion, a majority of the members of the Supreme Court of this state at the time of the hearing >of the disbarment proceedings were disqualified to hear and determine said proceeding. However, upon the oral argument of the petition of respondent, filed January 16, 1982, it was acknowledged by counsel for petitioner, the respondent herein, that he did not advise the committee investigating the matter on behalf of the Supreme Court of the United States that at the hearing upon the petition to disbar tbe respondent before the Supreme Court of this state he did not request any of the members of tbe Supreme Court to disqualify upon the ground of prejudice or that they might be directly or indirectly in-ierested in the result of the proceedings, so we cannot say what the committee investigating this matter in accordance with the order of the Supreme Court would have found had that fact been called to its attention. A similar question was before the United States Circuit Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit, in the case of Owens v. Dancy, Sheriff, 36 Fed. Rep. (2d) 882, wherein that court held there was no violation of the due process guarantee of the Constitution of the United States, Amendment Fourteen. In that case the United States Circuit Couit of Appeals cites the cases of Patterson v. Colorado, 205 U. S. 454, 51 L. Ed. 879, 27 S. Ct. 556, 10 Ann. Cas. 689; Gasquet v. Lapeyre, 242 U. S. 367, 37 S. Ct. 165, 166, 61 L. Ed. 367. In the last case it is said:

“And, as our decisions show, there is nothing in the clauses of the 14th Amendment guaranteeing due process and equal protection which converts an issue respecting the jurisdiction of a state court under the Constitution and statutes of the state into anything other than a question of state law, the decision of which by the state court of last resort is hireling upon this court.

The court then says:

“The second ground for the contention that appellant was denied a federal right because of the claimed disqualification of the justices is, we think, equally untenable. At common law the judicial act of a disqualified judge does not affect his jurisdiction. Such an act is not void, but voidable only, and is only reviewable on error or appeal, but not subject to collateral attack. 33 C. J. p. 1022.”

In tbe case of Holloway et al. v. Hall et al., 79 Okla. 163, 192 P. 219, this court said:

“Since the adoption of sections 5812, 5816, Rev. Laws 1910, where parties had knowledge of the alleged grounds of the disqualifications of the trial judge for more than three days prior to the trial, and did not avail themselves of the procedure prescribed by section 5816, they cannot urge the disqualification on appeal, or in a collateral attack, on the judgment rendered and orders made by said judge.”

The question of waiving the disqualification of judges not based on public policy, and existing only for tbe benefit of the party as a privilege, is discussed in the case of State v. Ham, 24 S. D. 639, 124 N. W. 955, Ann. Cas. 1912A, 1070. In that case the court held that:

“Any disqualification of a judge not based on public policy, and existing only for the benefit of the party as a privilege, may be waived.”

The subject of disqualification is also exhaustively discussed by tbe Supreme Court of Indiana in the case of Carr et al. v. Duhme et al., 167 Ind. 76, 10 Ann. Cas. 967. The subject was also fully discussed at length in Tumey v. Ohio, 273 U. S. 510, 47 S. Ct. 437, 71 L. Ed. 749, 50 A. L. R. 1243. It seems to be the holding in the decided cases that prejudice and remote interest must be shown by the party claiming the same to exist, while a disqualification on the ground of direct interest, such as a financial interest in the judgment to *25 be rendered, should disqualify the judge on the ground of public policy. We feel that no useful purpose may be served by a further discussion of that issue in this case.

What constitutes due process of law is discussed in the note to the case of Mary A. Pearson et al. v. John Yewdall et al., 95 U. S. 295, 24 L. Ed. 436; and in the case of James K. Brown v. State of New Jersey, 44 L. Ed. 119, Mr. Justice Brewer says:

“A perfectly satisfactory definition of due process may perhaps not be easily stated.”

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Bluebook (online)
1932 OK 229, 9 P.2d 728, 156 Okla. 23, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 171, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-dabney-v-ledbetter-okla-1932.