In re Mundy

• Decision Date: 22 December 1942
• Docket Number: 36923.
• Citation: 202 La. 41,11 So.2d 398
• Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
• Parties: In re MUNDY.

11 So.2d 398

202 La. 41

In re MUNDY.

No. 36923.

Supreme Court of Louisiana

December 22, 1942

Charles J. Mundy, of New Orleans, pro. per.

Sumter D. Marks, Jr., of New Orleans, for respondents.

PER CURIAM.

The relator who is an attorney at law, is applying for writs of certiorari and mandamus to compel the judges of the civil district court to permit him to practice before the court without paying the $5 annual dues assessed by the Louisiana State Bar Association. Two of the judges before whom he appeared as an attorney in certain judicial proceedings in the civil district court informed him in open court that his name was on the delinquent list furnished to the court by the Bar Association, and that he would not be permitted to practice before the court unless he would first reinstate himself in good standing by paying the $5 annual dues and the penalty of $5 imposed for delinquency.

Relator contends that his being forbidden to practice law, in the way in which he is forbidden by the two judges, without any judicial proceedings against him, deprives him of a valuable property right without due process of law, and that the two judges have virtually disbarred him, in violation of the provision in section 10 of article 7 of the Constitution vesting in the supreme court exclusive original jurisdiction in disbarment cases.

The relator admits in his petition that on February 27, 1942, he received a registered letter from the secretary-treasurer of the Bar Association advising him that the annual dues for membership in the association, which had been fixed at $5, for the year 1942-1943, would be payable in advance on April 1, 1942.

He admits that, on May 3, 1942, he gave written notice to the secretary-treasurer of the Bar Association that he would not pay the dues assessed by the Association and had no desire or intention to be a member of the Association. In this letter of May 3, he sent to the secretary-treasurer of the Bar Association a carbon copy of a letter which he had sent to the United States Internal Revenue Department, and in which, among other declarations, he declared to the collector of internal revenue:

'Dear Sirs:

'Inclosed please find money order for $5, the occasion for this remittance being for the following reasons, to-wit:

'The Legislature of the State of Louisiana in 1940 passed Act No. 54, known as Senate Bill No. 68, and Section 2 of said Act reading as follows:

"Section 2. That the membership of the Association shall consist of all persons now or hereafter regularly licensed to practice law in this State, and no person shall practice law in this state who is not a member thereof in good standing.'

'Thereafter, the Louisiana State Bar Association was incorporated by a notarial act and thereafter the Association fixed the yearly dues of its members at $5 each for active members and $3 yearly for inactive members, etc.

'I concede it is the right of the Legislature to pass a law taxing any and all persons within the State, lawyers, doctors, dentists, etc., but I do not believe it is the right of the Legislature, the Supreme Court of Louisiana, or of any other governing body, to compel by a legislative act or otherwise any particular class of persons to automatically become members of any particular organization and to pay dues to that association or organization in any amount, and penalize them by suspension from the practice of their profession in the event that such compelled member may neglect, fail or refuse to pay such dues.

'Therefore, believing that at this critical time in the history of my country, that my country needs this small contribution more than does the Louisiana State Bar Association, of which I do not care to be a member, and denying its right to suspend my right to earn a living by the practice of law, simply because I refuse to pay such dues, I am paying the $5 to my Government rather than to the said Bar Association, be the results come what may.'

Relator admits in his petition that, on May 20, 1942, he received a registered letter from the secretary-treasurer of the Bar Association reminding him of the letter of February 27, and again advising him that the annual dues for the year 1942-1943, which had been fixed at $5, were payable on April 1, 1942, and had not been paid. And he admits that in the letter of May 20, 1942, the secretary-treasurer of the Bar Association quoted Section 4 of Article V of the Articles of Incorporation of the Association, which had been adopted formally as one of the rules of the Supreme Court, and which section reads as follows:

'Sec. 4. A member in default in payment of dues for thirty days shall be regarded as delinquent, and shall be given written notice thereof by the Secretary-Treasurer. If the delinquent member fails to pay such dues within thirty days after such notice of delinquency, he shall cease to be a member in good standing, and the Secretary-Treasurer shall certify to the Supreme Court that the delinquent is thus ineligible to practice law.

'Where a member has thus become ineligible, he shall be reinstated upon payment of the dues owed at the time he ceased to be a member in good standing, together with a penalty of Five Dollars ($5) and any additional dues that might be payable for the current year. Notice of the removal of his ineligibility shall be given to the Supreme Court.'

He admits that in this letter from the secretary-treasurer he was reminded that his dues, amounting to $5, had not been paid and that he was therefore delinquent.

The secretary-treasurer of the Association, following out the rules, filed in the office of the clerk of the Supreme Court a list of the delinquents, including relator, and furnished an attested copy of the list to every court of record in the State, with a reminder that, under the provisions of Section 2 of Act 54 of 1940, a lawyer is not allowed to practice law in Louisiana if he is not in good standing as a member of the Louisiana State Bar Association.

The integration of the state bar, and the authority of the Bar Association to levy and collect annual dues for the privilege of practicing law, exists by virtue of an exercise of the inherent power of the Supreme Court to regulate and control membership in the bar of the state; and it had its origin in an act of the Legislature, Act 54 of 1940.

In the first section of Act 54 of 1940 the Supreme Court was memorialized to create an Association to be composed of all of the lawyers in the state, and to be known as the Louisiana State Bar Association. In the second and third section of the act it is declared:

'Section 2. That the membership of the Association shall consist of all persons now or hereafter regularly licensed to practice law in this State, and no person shall practice law in this State who is not a member thereof in good standing.

'Section 3. That the Supreme Court is hereby memorialized to exercise its inherent powers by providing for the organization and regulation of the Louisiana State Bar Association; by providing rules and regulations concerning admissions to the Bar, the conduct and activities of the Association and its members; and by providing a schedule of membership dues, the non-payment of which shall be ground for suspension; and by providing for the discipline, suspension or disbarment of its members.' [Italics by the court].

Accordingly, the proposed articles of incorporation of the Louisiana State Bar Association were prepared by a committee of lawyers elected by the lawyers themselves, under an order of this court providing for the election. And when the drafting of the proposed articles of incorporation was completed, on March 12, 1941, the court rendered its order completing the organization, as follows:

'The Louisiana State Bar Association is hereby organized under the rule-making power of the Court. The rules and regulations which shall govern it as an agency of the Court are the articles set forth in Exhibit A, which is the proposed form of articles of incorporation, and a copy of which is annexed to this order and made a part hereof as fully as though copied in extenso herein'. [Italics by the court].

Among the articles of incorporation which were adopted as rules of the court was Section 4 of Rule V, which we have quoted, and Section 4 of Rule IV,--thus: 'Article IV, Section 4. No person shall practice law in this state who is not an active member, in good standing, of this Association.'

The inherent power of a state Supreme Court to prescribe rules and regulations to govern the right to practice law in the state is now so well settled that there is no necessity for citing decisions on the subject. And the authority of the Legislature, in the exercise of its police power and in the performance of its duty to protect the public against imposition and incompetence on the part of persons professing to be qualified to practice law, to prescribe additional qualifications and conditions for the right to practice law, is equally well settled. The leading case on the subject in Louisiana is Ex parte Steckler, 179 La. 410, 154 So. 41, where the jurisprudence elsewhere up to that time was reviewed thoroughly.

The levying of dues by the Bar Association in a state which has adopted the so-called integrated bar is merely a form of levying a license tax upon the right to practice law. In this case the tax is levied by express authority of the act of the Legislature, Act 54 of 1940, memorializing the Supreme Court to organize the integrated bar, under the name of the Louisiana State Bar Association. To say that such license taxes, or occupation taxes, in the form of annual dues levied by the Association, cannot be enforced because they deprive the attorneys of their freedom either to...