HERMANDAD-UNION DE EMPLEADOS DEL FONDO v. Monge
| Decision Date | 10 June 1985 |
| Docket Number | Civ. No. 84-253 HL. |
| Parties | HERMANDAD-UNION DE EMPLEADOS DEL FONDO DEL SEGURO DEL ESTADO, by itself and on behalf of its members; Osvaldino Rojas Lugo, Plaintiffs, v. Jose Trias MONGE, Carlos V. Davila, Hiram Torres Rigual, Jorge Diaz Cruz, Carlos J. Irizarry Yunque, individually and in their official capacity, their agents, employees, and successors in office, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Puerto Rico |
Pedro J. Varela, Hato Rey, P.R., for plaintiffs.
Miriam Naveira de Rodon, Hato Rey, P.R., for defendants.
This 42 U.S.C. Section 1983 suit finds its origin in a disciplinary proceeding held before the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico (the Court), involving plaintiff Osvaldino Rojas Lugo, an attorney admitted to practice before the Puerto Rican courts. The facts are not in dispute.1 Both parties have moved for summary judgment and have appended to their respective motions all pertinent documents related to the proceedings held before the Puerto Rico Supreme Court.
BACKGROUND.
By May 6, 1982, the Puerto Rico Supreme Court had received various complaints against plaintiff. On that date, said Court ordered the Solicitor General of Puerto Rico to conduct an investigation thereon, and to present his findings and recommendations to the Court. The Solicitor General rendered his report on March 8, 1983, concluding that, in his opinion, there were not sufficient grounds to discipline plaintiff. The Court concurred. In re Rojas Lugo, 83 JTS 93.
The Court, however, took note that in one of the complaints referred to the Solicitor General, No. Q-375-A, it had found that plaintiff's practice of law before the State Insurance Fund and the Industrial Commission, while simultaneously holding the office of President of the union representing the employees of the former, "on its facts presented an apparent conflict of an ethical nature", and had ordered plaintiff to file a position brief. In re Rojas Lugo, pp. 1-2. The Court further noted that plaintiff's position had been that his legal practice before the Industrial Commission presented no ethical conflict, nor an appearance thereof.
Acting pursuant to Rule 13(e) of its Rules, 4 LPRA App. I-A2, the Court went on to hold that plaintiff's dual role presented a conflict of interest or an appearance of impropriety within the meaning of Canon 21 of the Puerto Rico Code of Professional Ethics, 4 LPRA App. IX. In re Rojas Lugo, pp. 3-4. Accordingly, the Court ordered plaintiff "to abstain from representing injured workers in their cases before the State Insurance Fund and before the Industrial Commission while he holds the office of President of the Union de Empleados del Fondo del Seguro del Estado." Id., at 5.
Plaintiff complains that the Puerto Rico Supreme Court did not afford him a hearing, nor an opportunity to tell his side of the story, before banning him from performing his dual roles as attorney of injured workers before the State Insurance Fund and the Industrial Commission, while holding the office of President of the union representing the public employees of the State Insurance Fund, in violation of his due process rights under the Constitution of the United States. This might or might not constitute a due process violation, as it concerns the constitutional requirements of notice and hearing. Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 95 S.Ct. 729, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975). However, for the reasons discussed later in this opinion, this argument should have been addressed to the U.S. Supreme Court via 28 U.S.C. § 1258, given the posture of plaintiff's claim when it reached this Court.
Thereafter, plaintiff resigned the presidency of the Union and the Court ruled that he could "continue representing the cases he has pending before the Commission", Order of January 3, 1984, p. 1 (official translation), App. I to defendants' Motion to Dismiss and/or for Summary Judgment, though it cautioned him from "holding any kind of directive or advisory position from which he could influence the Union while at the same time representing other interests before said administrative bodies." Id., at 2.
Shortly thereafter, on November 9, 1983, plaintiff filed a motion for reconsideration before the Puerto Rico Supreme Court (App. VIII to defendants' Motion), which the Court denied on January 12, 1984 (App. IX to defendants' Motion). In that motion, plaintiff asserted, inter alia, that he had not been afforded "the due process of law guaranteed in Rule 13" (official translation, p. 22), yet he purported to reserve "all his rights under the Constitution and the Laws of the United States of America to air them in due time before the Federal Forum." Id., at 23.
After the Court denied his motion for reconsideration, on January 31, 1984, Rojas Lugo filed the original complaint in this case against the named Justices of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court, in their individual and official capacities, claiming violations to his rights to freedom of speech and association, due process of law, and equal protection of the laws. Plaintiff did not seek review of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court decision before the U.S. Supreme Court. See 28 U.S.C. § 1258. The Hermandad Unión de Empleados del Fondo del Seguro del Estado (hereinafter the Union), joined in as plaintiff. The Union claimed that its rights also had been infringed by the October 21, 1983 judgment, inasmuch as it had been deprived of its freely-elected representative. A few days later, on February 10, 1984, the federal plaintiffs filed an amended complaint pursuant to FRCP 15(a). The amended complaint reiterated the allegations of the original complaint and, additionally, broadened plaintiffs' challenge to the disciplinary order by mounting a due process attack on the constitutionality of Rule 13(e) of the Rules of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico. See note 2, supra.
Defendants filed a Motion to Dismiss and/or for Summary Judgment, and plaintiffs countered with a Motion for Cross-Summary Judgment. Following a hearing held on March 1, 1984, the case was ripe for decision.
JURISDICTION.
In their motion, defendants question, among other things, this Court's jurisdiction. Their claim is well-founded and dispositive, thus relieving us from proceeding any further.
In District of Columbia Court of Appeals v. Feldman, 460 U.S. 462, 103 S.Ct. 1303, 75 L.Ed.2d 206 (1983), the Supreme Court held that there is no subject matter jurisdiction in a district court to review a judicial decision of the highest court of a state involving a disciplinary proceeding against an attorney. The Court made it plain that such review is to be had exclusively, if at all, before itself. 460 U.S. at 482, 103 S.Ct. at 1314.3
It must be highlighted, however, that it is a question of federal law whether a proceeding before another tribunal was truly judicial for the purpose of ascertaining the jurisdiction of a federal court.
In the case at bar, plaintiff was disciplined in a proceeding that was judicial in nature. See Feldman, supra, at 481, 103 S.Ct. at 1314. See also, Middlesex County Ethics Comm. v. Garden State Bar Ass'n., 457 U.S. 423, 102 S.Ct. 2515, 73 L.Ed.2d 116 (1982); In Re The Justices of The Supreme Court of Puerto Rico, 695 F.2d 17, 21 (1st Cir.1982); Martinez Rivera v. Trias Monge, 587 F.2d 539 (1st Cir.1978), aff'd., 448 F.Supp. 48 (D.P.R.1978). Indeed, the main thrust of plaintiffs' complaint is against the procedural rules as applied and the general procedure employed in such judicial proceeding.
The original complaint in this case sought from this Court to review a judgment of the Supreme Court of Puerto Rico stemming from an attorney disciplinary proceeding that is strictly judicial in nature. But the decision in Feldman clearly applies to federal district courts' challenges to attorney disciplinary orders rendered by state courts in judicial proceedings. The amended complaint, however, tries to avail itself of an exception to the above mentioned rule, recognized in Feldman itself. There, the Supreme Court distinguished between an attempt to seek review of a state judgment at the Federal District Court level and a general challenge to the constitutionality of the substantive rule enforced by the state court. 460 U.S. at 482-86, 103 S.Ct. at 1314-17. The latter type of suit, the Court held, may be entertained by a Federal District Court, provided that it does "not necessarily require /it/ to review a final state-court judgment in a judicial proceeding." Id., at 486, 103 S.Ct. at 1317. The standard to be applied, the Court stated, is whether the allegations in the federal complaint are "inextricably intertwined" with the state judgment. Id., at 483 n. 16 and 486-87, 103 S.Ct. at 1315 n. 16 and 1317.
Thus, plaintiffs seek a declaration that Rule 13(e) is unconstitutional, as well a reversal of the precise judgment of the Puerto Rico Supreme Court. The latter we obviously may not do, according to Feldman.4 Other federal courts have had no difficulty applying this branch of the Feldman doctrine. See, e.g., Zimmerman v. Grievance Committee, 585 F.Supp. 29 (N.D.N.Y.1983), aff'd., 726 F.2d 85 (2d Cir. 1984); Michaelis v. Nebraska State Bar Ass'n, 717 F.2d 437,439 (8th Cir.1983); Tofano v. Supreme Court of Nevada, 718 F.2d 313 (9th Cir.1983); Verner v. State of Colorado, 533 F.Supp....
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