Cobb v. Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, C.A.04-10390-MLW.
| Decision Date | 31 August 2004 |
| Docket Number | No. C.A.04-10390-MLW.,C.A.04-10390-MLW. |
| Citation | 334 F.Supp.2d 50 |
| Parties | Matthew COBB, Plaintiff, v. SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT OF MASSACHUSETTS, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts |
Matthew Cobb, Acton, MA, for Matthew Cobb, Plaintiff.
John R. Hitt, Attorney General's Office, Boston, MA, for The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Board of Bar Overseers, Massachusetts Office of Bar Counsel, Defendants.
Matthew Cobb, a Massachusetts attorney proceeding pro se, has brought this action seeking a preliminary and permanent injunction prohibiting the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts (the "SJC") from disbarring him as recommended by the Massachusetts Board of Bar Overseers (the "BBO" or the "Board"). The SJC and its Justices, who are named as defendants in their official capacities, have moved to dismiss this case on the basis of Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), which requires that federal courts not intervene in ongoing state proceedings unless certain, limited circumstances justifying an exception are demonstrated.
After a hearing on May 5, 2004, the court denied Cobb's motion for a preliminary injunction that, if granted, would have prohibited a Single Justice of the SJC from hearing his case. The court deferred ruling on the defendants' motion to dismiss.
On August 2, 2004, the Single Justice issued a decision ordering that Cobb be disbarred effective September 1, 2004.
On August 27, 2004, this court held a hearing on Cobb's renewed motion for a preliminary injunction and defendants' motion to dismiss. For the reasons explained in this Memorandum, Cobb has failed to make the showing necessary to avoid dismissal pursuant to Younger. Accordingly, defendant's motion to dismiss is being allowed and Cobb's motion for preliminary injunction is, therefore, moot.
In his August 2, 2004 Memorandum and Order, the Single Justice described the procedural history of this matter as follows.
Bar counsel filed a petition for discipline against the respondent on February 12, 2001, charging professional misconduct in three separate counts, each count pertaining to misconduct arising in the course of the respondent's representation of three different clients. A condensed overview of the charges is as follows. Count one arose from the respondent's representation of Dr. Omar Jaraki and alleged that the respondent filed a motion containing improbable and false allegations that he failed to corroborate, thereby exposing Dr. Jaraki to sanctions, and that the respondent made groundless representations to the court. Count two arose from the respondent's representation of Richard and Jean Nutile, a married couple, and alleged that the respondent filed a complaint against their adversaries' attorneys without grounds to support it, misrepresented to his clients that they had been sanctioned, persisted in a frivolous appeal, converted his clients' settlement proceeds to pay sanctions assessed against him personally, and without good ground or support, alleged in papers filed in the Appeals Court that a Superior Court judge who had sanctioned him had been improperly influenced and was biased. Count three arose from the respondent's representation of Maria Malave and alleged that the respondent settled a case without her authority, continued to represent her when their interests were in conflict, disclosed client communications, and made misrepresentations to a court and to bar counsel.
The respondent, who has and continues to represent himself throughout these proceedings, filed an answer on March 7, 2001. Following six days of hearings, the hearing committee, on February 21, 2003, entered its report, finding that the respondent had violated numerous disciplinary rules and recommending that he be disbarred. A copy of the hearing committee's report is appended hereto as Attachment A and is incorporated herein by reference. Following a hearing before a panel of the board (panel), the panel, in a report dated December 2, 2003, adopted the hearing committee's findings in their entirety, concluded that the respondent had violated numerous disciplinary rules, and recommended that the respondent be disbarred.
In re: Matthew Cobb, BD 2004-0023, slip op. at 1-2 (Aug. 2, 2004).
After reviewing the substantial record and considering the arguments of the parties the Single Justice concluded that Cobb should be sanctioned and that the appropriate sanction is disbarment. Id. at 1, 23.
Certain facts relating to the Nutile matter have relevance for the motion to dismiss. The Superior Court judge who imposed the first sanctions at issue in the Nutile matter was Martha Sosman, who is now a Justice of the SJC. The sanctions were imposed because of Cobb's conduct concerning his opposing counsel in the Nutile matter, Alan Rose, Esq., who was then a partner in the law firm of Nutter, McLennan and Fish. Cobb criticized then-Judge Sosman for allegedly permitting and condoning unethical conduct by Rose and another member of his firm, who was representing Rose. Rose was a witness in the BBO proceedings. A subpoena for Judge Sosman was quashed. Before the BBO decided the Cobb matter, Rose was appointed by the SJC as a member of the Board. There is, however, no evidence, or even argument, that Rose participated in the Cobb matter after his appointment. Nor was there a request to this court for discovery on that issue.
"Underlying our federal system is a presumption that the state courts are as capable as their federal counterparts of guaranteeing federal rights." Bettencourt v. Bd. of Registration in Med., 904 F.2d 772, 776 (1st Cir.1990). "One of the many ways federal courts demonstrate comity is by refusing to grant relief whenever doing so would interfere substantially with ongoing state judicial proceedings." Id. at 777.
Younger deference is generally required to "ongoing ... `civil' or even `administrative' proceedings that satisfy three conditions: (1) the proceedings are judicial (as opposed to legislative) in nature; (2) they implicate important state interests; and (3) they provide an adequate opportunity to raise federal constitutional challenges." Id. As Cobb recognizes, state bar disciplinary proceedings, such as the BBO proceedings in his case, satisfy the first two prongs of the Younger test. See Middlesex County Ethics Comm. v. Garden State Bar Ass'n, 457 U.S. 423, 432-35, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 73 L.Ed.2d 116 (1982).
Cobb contends, however, that the ongoing state judicial proceedings do not offer him an adequate opportunity to raise federal constitutional challenges. He also relies on the principle that, even where all three requirements of Younger are satisfied, "a federal court may nonetheless intervene to halt an ongoing state judicial proceeding if the plaintiff demonstrates `bad faith, harassment, or any other unusual circumstances.'" Brooks v. New Hampshire Supreme Court, 80 F.3d 633, 639 (1st Cir.1996) (quoting Younger, 401 U.S. at 54, 91 S.Ct. 746).
"These exceptions to Younger's policy of abstention have been very narrowly construed by the [Supreme] Court." United Books, Inc. v. Conte, 739 F.2d 30, 34 (1st Cir.1984). "[T]he bias exception to the Younger abstention doctrine is inapposite if an ostensibly aggrieved party fails to employ available procedures for recusal of allegedly biased judges." Brooks, 80 F.3d at 640 (citing Middlesex, 457 U.S. at 435, 102 S.Ct. 2515).
Moreover, "an entire group of adjudicators [such as the Justices of the SJC] cannot be disqualified wholesale solely on the basis of an alleged institutional bias ..." Id. Rather, "[t]o implicate due process, claims of general institutional bias must be harnessed to a further showing, such as a potential conflict of interest or a pecuniary stake in the outcome of the litigation." Id. (citations omitted).
In some, but not all, circumstances, discovery and/or an evidentiary hearing may be necessary or appropriate to decide a Younger abstention issue. In some cases, "the allegations of the complaint are clearly insufficient" to prove an exception to the Younger doctrine. See Jacobson v. Village of Northbrook, Mun. Corp., 824 F.2d 567, 570 (7th Cir.1987). However, if the plaintiff's disputed allegations would, if proven, be sufficient to merit federal intervention, the court has the discretion to allow discovery, and to take testimony at a hearing on a motion for a preliminary injunction and/or a motion to dismiss on Younger grounds. See Kenneally v. Lungren, 967 F.2d 329, 334-35 (9th Cir.1992); Maymo-Melendez v. Alvarez-Ramirez, 364 F.3d 27, 31 (1st Cir.2004). A plaintiff has a duty to "demonstrate how discovery would [] permit [ ] him to resist Younger abstention." Mehdipour v. Snowden, 162 F.3d 1173 (10th Cir.1998) (table).
As indicated earlier, Cobb asserts that the ongoing state judicial proceedings do not provide him an adequate opportunity to raise federal constitutional challenges and, therefore, that the third prong of the Younger test is not met. This contention is incorrect.
Cobb has had an opportunity to present his federal constitutional claims to the Single Justice, where they were to be considered in accordance with the general procedures of Mass. S.J.C. Rule 2:21, pertaining to actions before the Single Justice, and reviewed under the standards of Rule 4:01, § 8(4).1 The Single Justice's decision may be appealed to the full SJC. See Mass.G.L. c. 231, § 114; In re Foley, 439 Mass. 324, 333, 787 N.E.2d 561 (2003) ().
When addressing issues arising from the actions of the Board of Registration in Medicine, the First Circuit has held that:
[T]he review proceedings before the SJC provide an adequate opportunity to raise federal constitutional...
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...to Younger's policy of abstention have been very narrowly construed by the [Supreme] Court." Cobb v. Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, 334 F.Supp.2d 50, 53 (D. Mass. 2004) (citing United Books, Inc. v. Conte, 739 F.2d 30, 34 (1st Cir. 1984). Despite Jelen's argument to the contrary, ......