National Ass'n for Advancement of Colored People v. Committee on Offenses Against Administration of Justice

• Decision Date: 13 June 1960
• Docket Number: No. 5098,5098
• Parties: NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, ETC., ET AL. v. COMMITTEE ON OFFENSES AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, ET AL. Record
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

Page 721

114 S.E.2d 721

201 Va. 890

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF COLORED PEOPLE, ETC., ET AL. v. COMMITTEE ON OFFENSES AGAINST THE ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE, ET AL.

Record No. 5098.

Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia

June 13, 1960.

S. W. Tucker (Oliver W. Hill; Robert L. Carter, on brief), for the appellants.

William H. King (A. S. Harrison, Jr., Attorney General; Kenneth C. Patty, Assistant Attorney General, on brief), for the appellees.

JUDGE: SNEAD

SNEAD, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

Appellants, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, a corporation, hereinafter referred to as 'NAACP', and the Virginia State Conference of National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Branches, an unincorporated association affiliated with NAACP, were awarded an appeal from a decree entered May 19, 1959, which dismissed their bill of complaint exhibited against the Committee on Offenses Against the Administration of Justice, its individual members and clerk, appellees, hereinafter referred to as 'Committee', created pursuant to Chapter 373, Acts of Assembly 1958. Sections 3, 4, 5 and 6 thereof are printed in the margin.

' § 3. The Joint Committee may hold hearings anywhere in the State. The Chairman of the Committee, or any member acting at his direction shall have authority to issue subpoenas, which may be served by any sheriff or sergeant of this State, or by any agent or investigator of the Committee, all with return shown thereon, requiring the attendance of witnesses, the production of books, records, photographs and other writings, or both. The Committee also may compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of books, records, photographs and other writings by motion made before the circuit or corporation court having jurisdiction of the person whose attendance or of whom production is sought. The court upon such motion shall issue such subpoenas, writs, processes or orders as the court deems necessary. If any person, firm, corporation, association or other organization (hereinafter severally referred to as 'persons') fails to appear in response to any subpoena as thereby required, or any person fails or refuses, without legal cause, to answer any question propounded to him or fails or refuses to produce writings or, upon his appearance pursuant to a subpoena behaves in a disorderly manner, then upon the application by the Chairman, or by any member of the Committee acting at his direction, or by its counsel, to the circuit or corporation court of the county or city wherein such person resides or may be found, such court shall issue an order directing its clerk to issue a rule against such person to show cause why he should not be punished for contempt by reason of his failure to so appear, testify, produce writings or because of such disorderly behavior. The Chairman of the Committee, or any member acting at his direction, shall be authorized to administer oaths to witnesses.

' § 4. The Joint Committee or any one or more members thereof, when acting pursuant to written direction of a majority of the Committee, may take the deposition of any witness, within or without the State, who is thought to possess information germane to the matters under investigation. The testimony of any such witness within the State may be taken pursuant to a subpoena issued by the Committee or by the clerk of the circuit or corporation court having jurisdiction of the person of such witness; and the testimony of a witness without the State shall be taken in compliance with §§ 8-305 and 8-306 insofar as practicable. Any such deposition taken by less than a quorum of the Committee shall be as valid as if taken by a quorum.

' § 5. The Joint Committee may file interrogatories in the clerk's office of the circuit or corporation court having jurisdiction of the person from whom answers are sought. Upon such filing, the clerk shall issue a summons, directed as prescribed in § 8-44 requiring the sheriff or sergeant to summon the person to answer such interrogatories, and make return thereof within such time, not exceeding sixty days, as may be prescribed in the summons. With the summons there shall be a copy of the interrogatories, which shall be delivered to the person served with the summons at the time of service. The Committee may also issue, have served, and require answers to interrogatories.

' § 6. The Joint Committee, or any member thereof when acting pursuant to its direction, may sue out an attachment for any book, record, photograph or other writing in the possession or subject to the control of any person in the circuit or corporation court of the county or city having jurisdiction of such person. Proceedings for an attachment hereunder shall be initiated by a sworn petition which shall describe such writings with reasonable certainty and shall state the grounds on which the attachment is sought. It shall be sufficient ground for an attachment if it appears from the petition that the person named therein is destroying, removing or concealing, or is about to destroy, remove or conceal, or that it is believed that, if otherwise proceeded against, such person will destroy, remove or conceal such writings to avoid their production.

'Upon the filing of the petition, the clerk before whom the petition is filed shall issue an attachment in accordance with its prayer. Such attachment shall be directed to the sheriff or sergeant of the county or city and shall be returnable before the court out of which it was issued, or the judge thereof in vacation, not more than thirty days from the date of service. Such attachment shall command the officer to whom it may be directed to attach the writings described therein and to keep the same safely in his possession until further order of the court.

'Any proceeding by the person in possession or control of such writings to quash an attachment shall be by motion to the court from which the attachment issued. Such motion shall be verified by affidavit and shall recite with particularity its grounds. The motion shall be filed not more than seven days after the attachment shall have been levied. Pending the court's decision on a motion to quash such attachment, and in no event earlier than seven days after its levy, the writings shall not be examined by the Joint Committee, but shall remain under the control of the court.'

Note: Section 6 (Code § 30-47) has been amended and reenacted by Chapter 39, Acts of Assembly 1959, Ex. Sess., to provide for the sealing of property attached by the officer and to be returned forthwith by him to the custody of the court, and to permit an inspection of writings by the person formerly in possession during the seven day period after levy upon satisfying the court that the examination is necessary to prevent undue hardship.

In their bill, complainants prayed for discovery of certain records in possession of the Committee. They also prayed that the Committee and their successors in office be enjoined and restrained from '(1) in anywise enforcing, executing or proceeding against complainants, their affiliates, officers, members, contributors, voluntary workers, and attorneys associated with the conduct of the program of the complainants, or any of them, under the provisions of Section 6 of Chapter 373, Acts of the General Assembly of Virginia, 1958 session, and from (2) in anywise enforcing, executing or proceeding under any provision of Chapter 373 * * * in such manner as to compel, through the use of compulsory process, (a) disclosure of the names or other information leading to the identity of any member, contributor, voluntary worker or associated of the complainants, or of any person who has requested of or received from the complainants assistance in any matter, case or proceeding involving an issue of racial segregation or discrimination, or (b) explanation for, or discussion of, any person's belief or his advocacy of, or participation in, or donation of support for litigation to vindicate rights and privileges secured by the Constitution and laws of the United States.'

The bill was filed on November 18, 1958, in the Law and Equity Court of the City of Richmond. On December 2, 1958, appellees filed a motion to remove the cause to the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond on the grounds that exclusive jurisdiction of the cause was vested in the Circuit Court, and there was pending in that court proceedings between the same litigants in which the issues raised in this proceeding might be fully and finally determined. Over objections of appellants the Law and Equity Court granted the motion and ordered the cause removed. On December 5, 1958, the Circuit Court ordered the suit docketed and proceeded with as if it had been originally instituted there. On the same day appellants filed their motion in the Circuit Court to remove the cause to one of the courts in the city of Richmond having general equity jurisdiction, contending that the cause was not one within the limited and exclusive statutory jurisdiction of the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond. Following the order of December 18, 1958, overruling that motion, appellees on the same day filed a motion to dismiss the bill.

The grounds alleged in support of the motion were: (a) Appellants were in no way threatened with imminent and irreparable injury. (b) Adequate remedies at law were available to appellants. (c) Except for published reports of legislative committees created under Chapters 34 and 37, Acts of Assembly 1956, Ex. Sess., which are public documents, the transcripts of proceedings before, and the records of, such legislative committees are the sole property of the Committee, are privileged, private in nature, and are not subject to disclosure. (d) The suit was brought in bad faith and only for the purpose of hindering appellees in the performance of their proper duties.

On March 20, 1959, the day set for argument on ...