Legg, Matter of

• Citation: 386 S.E.2d 174,325 N.C. 658
• Decision Date: 07 December 1989
• Docket Number: No. 168A89,168A89
• Parties: In the Matter of Basil Ray LEGG, Jr., Applicant to the February 1987 North Carolina Bar Examination.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina

Page 174

386 S.E.2d 174

325 N.C. 658

In the Matter of Basil Ray LEGG, Jr., Applicant to the February 1987 North Carolina Bar Examination.

No. 168A89.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Dec. 7, 1989.

Erdman, Boggs & Harkins, by Harry H. Harkins, Jr., Durham, for applicant-appellant.

Lacy H. Thornburg, Atty. Gen. by John F. Maddrey, Asst. Atty. Gen., Raleigh, for the Bd. of Law Examiners of the State of North Carolina-appellee.

MEYER, Justice.

The applicant contests the conclusion of the North Carolina Board of Law Examiners (Board) that he had "not satisfied the Board that he possesses the qualifications of character and general fitness requisite for an attorney and counsellor at law and that he is of such good moral character as to be entitled to the high regard and confidence of the public" and that "[f]or this reason, his application to take the North Carolina Bar Examination should be denied." After examination of the whole record, we affirm the Board's conclusion.

The Board made this conclusion after the Superior Court remanded an earlier Board order dated 30 July 1987. In the 30 July 1987 order the Board affirmed the order of a two-member hearing panel dated 17 April 1987 denying the application to stand for the North Carolina Bar Examination.

Basil Ray Legg, Jr., is an applicant for admission to the North Carolina Bar. He first applied to take the July 1986 North Carolina Bar Examination. However, he sent his application late, and the Board declined to grant his request to file a late application. The Board returned the application and registration fee at his request.

On 14 October 1986, the filing deadline for the February 1987 examination, Legg resubmitted the application he filed for the July 1986 examination. His updated application indicated that he had moved to North Carolina as of 1 October 1986, having purchased a home and taken employment in this state. On 1 December 1986 he filed an amendment providing zip codes and corrected addresses.

The Board permitted Legg to take the February 1987 examination but sealed the results pending a final determination of his fitness and character. At the time he submitted his application, Legg was a licensed attorney in West Virginia. Having graduated from the West Virginia University Law School in December 1983, he was admitted to practice in West Virginia pursuant to its diploma privilege, under which no bar examination is required.

By letter dated 24 March 1987, the Board notified the applicant that he was to appear before a hearing panel to answer questions as to his fitness and character. On 17 April 1987 Legg appeared before the two-member hearing panel. On that date, subsequent to the hearing, Legg submitted an amendment to his application listing the following debts: a $250.00 debt to West Virginia State Senator Odell Huffman; a $316.10 debt to Tom Moses, a private investigator; a $10,000 unsecured "disputed" debt to the estate of Mary Veneri; a $1,000 debt to MasterCard; and a $20,000 margin account secured by stocks and securities held by Merrill Lynch. He incurred the first three debts between mid-September and 1 November 1986 and the last two over "various" dates. None of these debts were listed on his original application although question 17(c) of the application requires applicants to "[l]ist all debts over $200, including student loans, and indicate [their] status." Question 17(d) requires the applicant to state whether "any one ever asserted a claim or demand against [the applicant], which has not been made the subject of any action or legal proceeding."

Legg also amended his answer to question 18, in which he had originally stated that he had never been involved personally in any suit. The April amendment disclosed an October 1985 suit to recover a debt in which Legg prevailed as the defendant. The amendment listed an additional malicious prosecution suit pending, with Legg and his wife the defendants. The amendment also listed a dispute regarding the estate of Mary Veneri, his mother-in-law, in which suit would be filed. Neither of the suits or the dispute were listed on his original application, although question 18 asks "[h]ave you ever been involved in any suits in equity, actions at law, suits in bankruptcy or other statutory proceedings, matters in probate, lunacy, guardianship, or any other judicial proceedings of any nature and kind, except criminal proceedings personally or as a member of a professional association or corporation?"

Finally, the amendment listed his membership since May 1985 in two professional organizations. His original application indicated no membership in any professional organization, although question 37(b) requires applicants to "give the name and address of each organization whose membership consists primarily of attorneys and of which you are or have ever been a member."

By order dated 17 April 1987, the hearing panel concluded that Legg "has failed to satisfy the Hearing Panel that he possesses the qualifications of character and general fitness requisite for an attorney and counsellor-at-law and is of such good moral character as to be entitled to the high regard and confidence of the public." On that basis the panel denied Legg's application and ordered that his February 1987 North Carolina Bar Examination be permanently sealed. Pursuant to Board Rule .1203(b), Legg requested a hearing de novo before the full Board.

The Board mailed a notice of hearing to the applicant and his attorney on 1 May 1987. The notice set out that specific inquiry would be made concerning three complaints filed with the West Virginia State Bar against the applicant, the five specific debts not listed on the original application, pending litigation involving the applicant, and the applicant's representation of Linda B. White of Princeton, West Virginia. The notice also stated that "[w]hile the Board will make specific inquiry about the matters referred to above, please be advised that inquiry can be made about the answers to any questions set out in the application." The notice also directed the applicant "to bring to this hearing any files, papers, statements of account, cancelled checks and any other documents he may have that relate to the matters of inquiry."

The hearing took place on 15 May 1987 before nine members of the eleven-member Board, including the two panel members who conducted the original hearing. On that day, prior to the hearing, Legg filed a third amendment to his application. This amendment described changes in his MasterCard and Merrill Lynch balances, a new automobile loan and the final satisfaction of a bank loan. The third amendment indicated for the first time a disputed $475.00 debt concerning a legal fee owed his nephew, Tony Veneri, which arose from a case in which the applicant and his nephew were co-counsel. The amendment also indicated for the first time a disputed amount owed to Richard Daisey, a court reporter. Like the previous two amendments, this third amendment was handwritten, though the form states that amendments should be typewritten.

The Board initially questioned the applicant regarding omissions in his answers to question 6 of the application. That question requires applicants to "[l]ist ... every permanent and temporary residence you have ever had ... since your 16th birthday." The question also required applicants to give the exact address of each residence.

Legg admitted that his response to the question was incomplete and that it should have included his Louisiana residence during the semester he withdrew from law school and lived with his fiancee. On his application Legg had listed the addresses of his residences during law school (September 1980 through December 1983) as "Various Apartments." He stated to the Board that he incompletely responded to the question because he was "unsure of the extent of the detail required on the application," that he just "assumed that this would be sufficient," that the omissions were "an oversight on [his] part" and that he "did not take the necessary care in filling out this section."

Legg also neglected to list in his response to question 12 a month's employment as a laborer following his graduation from college. He left that position without giving notice because he found the work "too strenuous" and "[a]t the age of 18 or 19 [he] was not disciplined enough to handle those responsibilities."

The Board questioned Legg about those debts omitted from his answer to question 17 in his original application which were the subject of his second amendment. Legg stated that his omission of those debts on the original application was "an oversight." Failure to include debts arising from his practice of law "was because [he] did not remember that part of the question when [he] updated and amended [his] application."

Legg "simply did not think of" the debt due Senator Huffman for the last month's rent on his law office when he submitted his application. Legg testified that he believed he had an understanding with the Senator in which Legg would return to retrieve some telephone equipment and pay the outstanding rent at that time since Huffman "never sent me a bill." After the two-member panel investigated the matter at the hearing, Legg sent the Senator a check in full payment. Legg introduced a letter from Senator Huffman in which Huffman indicated that on 1 May 1987 he had received the balance due on the office rental.

Legg stated that when he filed his October application he had no knowledge of his debt to Tom Moses, the private investigator. Under the West Virginia indigent defense system, the attorney is responsible for paying certain case-related expenses such as court reporting and private investigation. Legg's practice had been to pay for services prior to state reimbursement or, alternatively, after reimbursement. When Legg closed the approximately seventy active files for which he needed to bill the state prior to...