Korup v. Flaherty
| Decision Date | 27 October 1981 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 81-2799. |
| Citation | 524 F. Supp. 1160 |
| Parties | Niels KORUP v. John P. FLAHERTY, Bruce W. Kauffman, Rolf Larsen, Robert N. C. Nix, Jr., Henry X. O'Brien, Samuel J. Roberts, Roy Wilkinson, Jr. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Niels Korup, pro se.
Charles W. Johns, Howland W. Abramson, Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts, Philadelphia, Pa., for defendants.
Niels Korup, the plaintiff in this civil rights action, was denied permission to sit for the February 1981 Pennsylvania bar examination because he failed to meet certain admission requirements established by, or under the authority of, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court (the Court). The defendants, sued individually and in their judicial capacity, are the Justices of the Court. Although it is not entirely clear from his complaint, Korup essentially alleges that the admission requirements in question, as adopted and as applied, violate his rights under the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. Korup seeks relief in the form of an order of this court requiring the defendants to admit him to the practice of law or permit him to sit for the next Pennsylvania bar examination. Plaintiff alleges that this court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343 for violations of 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The defendants have moved to dismiss on the grounds that (a) this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction, (b) the action is barred by the doctrine of res judicata or collateral estoppel, (c) the plaintiff has failed to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and (d) this court lacks the authority to grant the relief requested.
The plaintiff is a law school graduate of the University of Copenhagen and is admitted to the practice of law in Denmark. In 1976, he received an L.L.M. from the University of California at Berkeley, and the following year completed an additional 14 credits during post graduate study at Harvard Law School. Aggregating the number of credit hours Korup had completed at Berkeley with those completed at Harvard, Korup had accumulated 44 credit hours at institutions fully accredited by the American Bar Association. On the basis of these credentials,1 Korup applied in September 1980 to the Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners (the Board) for permission to sit for the Pennsylvania bar examination.
The Pennsylvania Board of Law Examiners is a creation of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Its primary function is to recommend persons for admission to the bar in accordance with the Bar Admission Rules (B.A.R.) promulgated by the Court. Pa. B.A.R. 103, 104. Ultimate jurisdiction over regulating admission to the bar is vested in the Court. Pa.Const. art. V, § 10(c). Generally, to be considered for admission, an applicant must have received either a bachelor of laws or a juris doctor degree from an institution accredited by the American Bar Association. Pa. B.A.R. 203(2). Since Korup received his law degree from the University of Copenhagen, an institution not within the accreditation activities of the A.B.A., his application was considered by the Board under Rule 205, which reads:
In order to effectuate the rule, the Board had adopted, several years prior to Korup's application, the following resolution:
Upon MOTION, duly made and seconded, it was resolved that foreign attorneys may apply to sit for the Pennsylvania Bar Examination provided they have successfully completed the study of law in an accredited American law school for 24 credit hours with a minimum of 16 credit hours in any of the following subjects: Criminal Law, Real Property, Contracts, Torts, Evidence, Constitutional Law, Corporations and Decedents' Estates.
The Board applied these criteria to Korup's application and found that his course work at Harvard and Berkeley exceeded the 24 credit-hour requirement, but that he had accumulated only 11 credit hours in the subjects specified in the resolution. Accordingly, the Board denied his application to sit for the bar examination. Korup timely petitioned the Court for review of the Board's determination. See Pa. B.A.R. 222 and Pa.R.App.P. 1501 et seq. While his petition for review was pending, Korup also filed with the Court a motion for summary relief, Pa.R.App.P. 1532(b), or, in the alternative, for expedited oral argument. This motion and the petition for review were denied by the Court without opinion on June 19, 1981.
Korup did not seek review of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court's ruling in the United States Supreme Court, but, instead, filed the present action in this court. Count I of Korup's complaint alleges that his right to due process has been violated by the adoption and application of admission requirements which create an irrebuttable presumption that he is unqualified to practice law. Count II alleges that the defendants' practice of occasionally granting waivers of the A.B.A. accreditation requirement to graduates of domestic, but not to graduates of foreign law schools violates his right to equal protection under the law.
The defendants initially contend that this action must be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(b)(1). I disagree. Plaintiff's complaint pleads facts sufficient to support the jurisdiction of this court under 28 U.S.C. §§ 1331 and 1343. Defendants do not dispute this. Rather, their argument is based on the principle that federal district court jurisdiction under those two sections is entirely original, and that plaintiff is really seeking review of the action of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania under the guise of a civil rights suit. In support of their position, they point to several federal courts of appeals' decisions which, in dismissing suits similar to plaintiff's, held that federal district courts do not have jurisdiction to review orders of a state court relating to admission to the bar. E. g., Brown v. Board of Bar Examiners, 623 F.2d 605 (9th Cir. 1980); Woodward v. Virginia Board of Bar Examiners, 598 F.2d 1345 (4th Cir. 1979).
Plaintiff, in an attempt to avoid the harsh consequences dictated by these decisions, contends that this court does have jurisdiction under the "subtle but fundamental distinction" drawn in Doe v. Pringle, 550 F.2d 596, 597 (10th Cir. 1976), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 916, 97 S.Ct. 2179, 53 L.Ed.2d 227 (1977). In Doe, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit observed that the federal courts have jurisdiction over a claim raising "a constitutional challenge to the state's general rules and regulations governing admission," but do not have jurisdiction over "a claim, based on constitutional or other grounds, that the state has unlawfully denied a particular applicant admission." Id. Asserting that this dichotomy has been accepted in this district, see Delgado v. McTighe, 442 F.Supp. 725 (E.D. Pa.1977), plaintiff categorizes his action within the first type of Doe challenge.
In the context of the present litigation, the Doe dichotomy is much easier to state than to apply. Cf. Brunwasser v. Strassburger, 490 F.Supp. 959, 963 (W.D.Pa.1980), aff'd without opinion, 642 F.2d 440 (3d Cir. 1981), cert denied, ___ U.S. ___, 102 S.Ct. 124, 70 L.Ed.2d 105 (1981). However, I find it unnecessary to determine the applicability of Doe in this case.2 If, in fact, plaintiff is attempting to relitigate issues already determined by the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, the defendants' attack on his complaint is more properly based upon principles of res judicata, not subject matter jurisdiction. See Roy v. Jones, 484 F.2d 96, 98-99 & n.11 (3d Cir. 1973); Adams v. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 502 F.Supp. 1282, 1285 n.4 (M.D.Pa.1980).
Before addressing the question of res judicata, I can readily dispose of defendants' contention that dismissal is warranted because this court lacks the power to grant the relief requested. Conceding arguendo that I am without authority to award the relief sought by plaintiff, I cannot dismiss his action on that ground. Holt Civic Club v. City of Tuscaloosa, 439 U.S. 60, 65-66, 99 S.Ct. 383, 387-388, 58 L.Ed.2d 292 (1978). Fed.R.Civ.P. 54(c) authorizes a federal district court to grant the relief to which a party is entitled, "even if the party has not demanded such relief in his pleadings." My inquiry must, therefore, center upon whether plaintiff is entitled to any relief.
Defendants contend that plaintiff's federal constitutional challenges to the admission requirements were previously litigated in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, consequently plaintiff is barred by the doctrine of res judicata or collateral estoppel from advancing such claims in this action. Plaintiff's complaint is silent as to the nature of the issues presented to Pennsylvania's highest court, but defendants have filled the void in the record by submitting the affidavit of Antonia DiStefano, a clerk in the Office of the Prothonotary for the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, attesting to the authenticity of records before the court consisting of three exhibits: (1) a copy of the disposition of the Court on plaintiff's petition for...
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Mattas v. Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
...the other numerous claims on his motion, were decided by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court when it denied his motion. In Korup v. Flaherty, 524 F.Supp. 1160 (E.D.Pa.1981), a similar situation existed. The plaintiff in that case was denied the opportunity to sit for the Pennsylvania Bar Examina......
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Nordgren v. Hafter
...could have raised such claim before the state tribunals. 460 U.S. at 487-489, 103 S.Ct. at 1318; see also, Korup v. Flaherty, 524 F.Supp. 1160, 1163-1166 (E.D.Pa.1981).2 We recognize that in Supreme Court of New Hampshire v. Piper, --- U.S. ----, 105 S.Ct. 1272, 84 L.Ed.2d 205 (1985), the U......