Dinan, Application of
| Decision Date | 23 July 1968 |
| Citation | 244 A.2d 608,157 Conn. 67 |
| Court | Connecticut Supreme Court |
| Parties | Application of Vincent G. DINAN for Readmission to the Bar. |
T. Paul Tremont, Bridgeport, with whom were Althea S. Dinan, Bridgeport, and, on the brief, Samuel Reich, Bridgeport, for appellant (applicant).
Joseph G. Shapiro, Special Asst. State's Atty., with whom was Herbert B. Wanderer, Danbury, for appellee (standing committee for Fairfield County on recommendations for admission to the bar).
Before KING, C.J., and ALCORN, HOUSE, THIM and RYAN, JJ.
In 1959, the applicant, on the day following the start of a grievance committee investigation of his professional conduct and that of his associate and father-in-law, Americo Scanzillo, tendered his resignation as a member of the Connecticut bar. Because of the applicant's resignation, the committee terminated its investigation of him. In 1961, the applicant applied for readmission to the Connecticut bar. This application, however, was denied on the ground that the investigation by the grievance committee was incomplete. Accordingly, the applicant requested the grievance committee to resume its investigation of his professional conduct.
Subsequent to the completion of the investigation by the grievance committee, the applicant filed with the Superior Court another application for readmission which was referred to the standing committee on recommendations for admission to the bar. The committee on recommendations held a hearing concerning the application and, on the basis of all the evidence, including the report of the grievance committee, concluded that the applicant was not a fit person to engage in the practice of law. It recommended that his application be denied.
At the hearing before the committee on recommendations, the applicant requested the chairman to disqualify himself because of his adverse testimony relating to the applicant's character which he gave before the grievance committee. This request was denied. The applicant then called the chairman as a witness for the purpose of examining him concerning his testimony before the grievance committee. The committee on recommendations refused to allow the applicant to cross-examine its chairman.
The chairman of the committee on recommendations had testified before the grievance committee that he represented an insurance company in a negligence suit which had been instituted by Scanzillo and the applicant. During the investigation of the accident, the insurance company procured an affidavit from Arthur J. DeFillippo, a part owner of a gasoline station where the accident was alleged to have occurred. In it, DeFillippo avers that Scanzillo, accompanied by a person whom Scanzillo introduced as his son-in-law, went to DeFillippo's station and asked him to sign a false statement concerning the cause of the accident. DeFillippo refused. The chairman testified that when DeFillippo refused to sign the statement, Scanzillo offered DeFillippo $50 if he would cooperate. DeFillippo again refused. When the grievance committee inquired of the chairman whether the applicant was present when Scanzillo sought to obtain the false statement, he replied by reading DeFillippo's affidavit: 'He then introduced a fellow with him as his son-in-law.' The chairman further testified that, when the case was ready for trial, he read DeFillippo's affidavit at a conference in the judge's chambers and accused Scanzillo of attempting to procure a false statement. Although the applicant was present at this conference, he remained silent in the face of the chairman's accusation that his associate attempted to procure a false statement.
The applicant has steadfastly denied that he was present when the attempt was made to procure a false statement from DeFillippo. To confirm his claimed lack of complicity in the attempt to elicit a false statement, the applicant refers to DeFillippo's testimony before the committee on recommendations that DeFillippo did not know the applicant and that the first time he saw him was at the hearing before that committee.
The standing committee relied on the testimony of its chairman before the grievance committee in concluding that 'Americo Scanzillo offered money to a witness to sign a false statement explaining the cause of an accident in a case which the firm was handling, and although the applicant was present, he denied all knowledge of the incident.'
The applicant objected to the acceptance of the unfavorable report on the ground that the committee failed to afford him a fair hearing by denying him the right to cross-examine the chairman. The court overruled the applicant's objection, accepted the recommendation of the standing committee, and rendered judgment denying the application.
The dispositive issue on this appeal is whether the court erred in overruling the claim of the applicant that he should have been afforded an opportunity to examine the chairman concerning his testimony before the grievance committee.
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Griffiths, Application of
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