New York Lawyers' Assn. v. Dacey
| Decision Date | 29 December 1967 |
| Parties | , 234 N.E.2d 459 In the Matter of the Petition of NEW YORK COUNTY LAWYERS' ASSOCIATION, Respondent, v. Norman F. DACEY, et al., Appellants. |
| Court | New York Court of Appeals Court of Appeals |
Appeal from Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, 28 A.D.2d 161, 283 N.Y.S.2d 984.
Daniel M. Shientag, New York City, for petitioner respondent.
Arthur Stephen Penn, New York City, for respondents-appellants, Norman F. Dacey and Norman F. Dacey doing business as National Estate Planning Council.
Satterlee, Warfield & Stephens, New York City, for respondents-appellants, Crown Publishers, Inc., Doubleday & Company, Inc. and Brentano's Inc.
Proceeding was brought by New York County Lawyers' Association against author of book entitled 'How to Avoid Probate!', and the publishers, distributors, and sellers of the book pursuant to the Judiciary Law, Consol.Laws, c. 30, § 750, subd. B, to punish them for contempt and for an injunction for the unlawful practice of law.
The Supreme Court, Special Term, New York County, 54 Misc.2d 564, 282 N.Y.S.2d 985, entered a judgment adjudging the author guilty of criminal contempt because of the allegedly unlawful practice of law, fining him, and granting an injunction against him and the publishers, distributors, and sellers of the book.
The Appellate Division, 28 A.D.2d 161, 283 N.Y.S.2d 984, by a divided court, entered an order November 15, 1967 which affirmed the judgment as to the author and modified the judgment, on the law, as to the publishers, distributors, and sellers by limiting injunction granted against the publishers, distributors and sellers so as to restrain from the publication, distribution and sale in New York, and from advertising or soliciting purchases of the book in New York. Stevens, J., dissented, on ground that it could not be claimed that the publication of a legal text which purported to say what the law is amounts to legal practice, and that the mere fact that the principles or rules stated in the text may be accepted by a particular reader as a solution to his problem, does not affect the matter, and that the publication of a multitude of forms for all manner of legal situations is a commonplace activity and their use by the Bar and public is general, and that the conjoining of the text and the forms with advice as to how the forms should be filled out does not constitute the unlawful practice of law, and that the order appealed from should be...
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