Jafree, Matter of

• Decision Date: 17 October 1984
• Docket Number: No. D-37,D-37
• Parties: In the Matter of Sayyid Mohammed Jawaid Iqbal JAFREE. . Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

Page 604

759 F.2d 604

In the Matter of Sayyid Mohammed Jawaid Iqbal JAFREE.

No. D-37.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Heard Oct. 17, 1984.

Decided April 8, 1985.

Sayyid Jafree, pro se.

Before CUMMINGS, Chief Judge, and ESCHBACH and POSNER, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Respondent Sayyid Mohammed Jawaid Iqbal Jafree was licensed to practice law in the State of Illinois on February 14, 1972, and admitted to practice before this court on December 9, 1976. On September 19, 1982, the Illinois Supreme Court disbarred respondent for professional misconduct. In re Jafree, 93 Ill.2d 450, 67 Ill.Dec. 104, 444 N.E.2d 143 (1982). On December 30, 1982, respondent was directed to show cause why, in view of the Illinois disbarment, his name should not be stricken from the roll of attorneys admitted to practice before this court. Respondent filed a timely response requesting an evidentiary hearing. By unpublished order of June 7, 1983, we denied the request for an evidentiary hearing and ordered respondent's name stricken. Rehearing was denied.

On October 3, 1983, respondent filed a motion for reinstatement citing a September 2, 1983 unpublished order of the United States Tax Court holding that the Illinois disbarment could not be given conclusive effect because of conflicting evidence as to whether respondent had received notice of the hearing before the Hearing Board of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. The Tax Court concluded that an evidentiary hearing would be necessary to resolve the conflict and, declining to conduct such a hearing, discharged its order to show cause. On November 14, 1983, respondent filed a brief in support of his motion for reinstatement in this court. Shortly thereafter, he notified the Clerk that he would be out of the country for an extended period, and the matter was accordingly held in abeyance. On September 27, 1984, after respondent signalled his return, the court entered an order granting respondent a rehearing (thereby, under our circuit rules, vacating our June 7, 1983 disbarment order) and scheduling a (non-evidentiary) hearing for October 17, 1984. ¹ Having considered respondent's arguments, we conclude that our initial disbarment decision was correct.

Respondent's story begins for our purposes in 1973 when his employment as an Illinois Assistant Attorney General was terminated. Represented by counsel, respondent filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois a civil rights action against William Scott, the then Illinois Attorney General, and others, alleging that he had been fired without cause in violation of various constitutional rights. The suit was dismissed for failure to state a claim. Jafree v. Scott, 372 F.Supp. 264 (N.D.Ill.1974). This court by unpublished order affirmed the district court except in one narrow respect. On remand the action was dismissed for want of prosecution, and respondent's subsequent pro se Rule 60(b) motions to vacate were denied. The district court further denied respondent's motion for leave to appeal in forma pauperis on the ground that the appeal was frivolous. Respondent paid the docketing fees, and this court ruled that the appeal from the dismissal was untimely; that the dismissal was, in any event, not an abuse of discretion; and that the district court did not abuse its discretion in denying the Rule 60(b) motions. Jafree v. Scott, 590 F.2d 209, 211-212 (7th Cir.1978) (per curiam). We noted disapprovingly at that time the "mass of wide-ranging, often conclusory, material from Jafree by means of briefs, motions, and correspondence which can only be regarded as a counter-stigmatization program with a self-encomiastic background," 590 F.2d at 211-12, and appended a sampling thereof as an addendum, 590 F.2d at 212-14. We further took note that the record included a tabulation of " 'some sixty separate discrimination claims filed by Jafree throughout the United States against some 43 companies or institutions ... from the late 1960s to [1975].' " 590 F.2d at 215.

The above-described suit proved to be only the first of more than a half-dozen actions filed by respondent in federal district court in this circuit against Scott. In addition, from 1976 through 1979, Jafree filed numerous suits in federal court against other defendants, including area law schools and law firms, FBI employees, members or employees of the Illinois Attorney Disciplinary Commission, and the Executive Committee of the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. The complaints typically alleged conspiracy to violate respondent's civil rights and typically were dismissed for failure to state a claim, failure to prosecute, or voluntarily following a finding of frivolousness and denial of in forma pauperis status. ² The dismissals produced more than a dozen appeals to this court, many of which were dismissed for failure to pay court fees, lack of prosecution or lack of jurisdiction, and a number of mandamus petitions, which were denied. Respondent's filings, as we have observed in the past, were characteristically "unlawyerlike in appearance," "prepared without regard to the appropriate rules," and "full of redundant, immaterial, impertinent or scandalous matter" including outrageous personal attacks on federal judges and state officials. Jafree v. Northwestern University Law School, et al., 590 F.2d 338 (7th Cir.1979). ³

Respondent was repeatedly admonished that continued filing of frivolous actions would not be tolerated, see, e.g., People of Illinois ex rel. Waxman v. Herzog, 455 F.Supp. 523, 524 (N.D.Ill.1978). In one case, this court, noting that respondent "refuses, or is unable to conduct himself according to the standards of a lawyer," taxed attorney's fees against him as a sanction, Jafree v. Northwestern University Law School, et al., 590 F.2d 338 (7th Cir.1979). These warnings were, however, to no avail, and we finally ordered that the history of respondent's litigation in this court be submitted to the Administrator of the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission. Jafree v. Scott, 624 F.2d 1105 (7th Cir.1980). See also, In re Jafree, 67 Ill.Dec. at 106-07, 444 N.E.2d at 145-46.

On December 10, 1980, the Administrator filed with the Hearing Board of the Disciplinary Commission a three-count complaint, ⁴ based in part on our June 11, 1980 order, detailing respondent's litigation in federal and state forums from 1973 to 1980 and alleging that respondent had been guilty of professional misconduct. Attached to the complaint was a notice of hearing set for February 25, 1981 at the Commission's offices in Chicago, Illinois. Respondent neither answered the complaint nor appeared at the hearing. The Hearing Board admitted into evidence an affidavit of service by John W. Stephenson, an investigator for the Commission. ⁵ According to the affidavit, Stephenson approached respondent on a corner of Dearborn Street in Chicago, showed him the complaint and notice of hearing, told him what the papers were, and attempted to serve him. When respondent refused to take the papers, Stephenson placed the papers on respondent's person, but respondent allowed them to fall to the sidewalk. The Board also placed in the record a copy, received by an attorney at the Commission, of respondent's letter to a former chairman of the Hearing Board in which respondent indicates that he is making a "limited appearance" for the purpose of presenting an "affidavit for relief" and requests a public hearing on the motion for "relief". The Board further noted that respondent twice called the Commission offices on the morning of the hearing, first to ask the name of the Chairman of the Hearing Board and later to inquire whether the Supreme Court had suspended William Scott. The Hearing Board concluded that personal service, although accomplished in a somewhat unusual manner, was sufficient; that respondent had filed "approximately 30 spurious, groundless, frivolous, and vexatious lawsuits," 15 groundless appeals, and "numerous other groundless and vexatious lawsuits or claims before agencies of the State;" and that respondent's conduct "was flagrantly unprofessional and notoriously brought the profession into disrepute."

The Hearing Board's Report and recommendation of disbarment were filed with the Commission's Review Board on April 7, 1981, with notice and a copy of the report mailed to respondent on the same date. The notice informed respondent that he had 21 days in which to file exceptions and to request leave to file a brief and for oral argument. Respondent made no filings. The Review Board accepted the Hearing Board's findings and recommendation and, on June 30, 1981, referred the matter for action to the Illinois Supreme Court, again with notice to respondent.

Respondent, after being granted a lengthy extension of time, filed exceptions in the Illinois Supreme Court. His principal argument was that the court lacked jurisdiction over him for want of valid personal service. Specifically, respondent charged that Stephenson's affidavit of service was a fabrication, part of a conspiracy to disbar him without a hearing, and that Stephenson was in any event not an authorized process server. He relied on his own affidavit denying service by Stephenson and the affidavit of a former client stating that no one served respondent with process while she was with him on January 27, 1981. The state court ruled that Stephenson was authorized under Illinois law to serve process and that respondent's affidavits were insufficient to rebut the affidavit of service. ⁶ The court further found that the charges against respondent had been proven by clear and convincing evidence and that disbarment was the appropriate sanction.

Although federal disbarment does not follow automatically a state disbarment, United States v. Theard, 354 U.S. 278, 281, 77 S.Ct. 1274, 1276, 1 L.Ed.2d 1342 (1957), state...