Randall, Matter of, s. 80-1254

• Decision Date: 21 January 1981
• Docket Number: Nos. 80-1254,80-1451,80-1545 and 80-8117,s. 80-1254
• Citation: 640 F.2d 898
• Parties: . RANDALL. Appeal of John D. RANDALL. John D. RANDALL, Appellant, v. W. W. REYNOLDSON; Clay LeGrand; Warren J. Rees; Harvey Uhlenhopp; David Harris; Mark McCormick; Robert G. Allbee; Arthur A. McGiverin; Jerry L. Larson, Appellees. In the Matter of Suspension to Practice Before the United States District Court for the Northern District of Iowa of John D. RANDALL, Appellant. In the Matter of John D. RANDALL, Sr., Petitioner. United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

Page 898

640 F.2d 898

In the Matter of Suspension to Practice Before the United

States District Court of the Southern District of

Iowa of John D. RANDALL.

Appeal of John D. RANDALL.

John D. RANDALL, Appellant, v. W. W. REYNOLDSON; Clay LeGrand; Warren J. Rees; Harvey

Uhlenhopp; David Harris; Mark McCormick; Robert G.

Allbee; Arthur A. McGiverin; Jerry L.

Larson, Appellees.

In the Matter of Suspension to Practice Before the United

States District Court for the Northern District of

Iowa of John D. RANDALL, Appellant.

In the Matter of John D. RANDALL, Sr., Petitioner.

Nos. 80-1254, 80-1451, 80-1545 and 80-8117.

United States Court of Appeals,

Eighth Circuit.

Submitted Nov. 12, 1980.

Decided Jan. 21, 1981.

Oscar Fendler, Blytheville, Ark., John Lashly, St. Louis, Mo., for appellant.

Mark E. Schantz, Sol. Gen., Lee H. Gaudineer, Des Moines, Iowa, for appellees.

Before HEANEY and BRIGHT, Circuit Judges, and GIBSON, Senior Circuit Judge.

GIBSON, Senior Circuit Judge.

This consolidated appeal concerns four separate proceedings involving the disbarment of John D. Randall, Sr., hereinafter referred to as Randall, from the practice of law. On November 14, 1979, the Supreme Court of Iowa disbarred Randall for drawing a will for a business partner, in which Randall named himself as sole beneficiary, and for engaging in a conflict of interest by representing a corporation, wholly owned on an equal basis by Randall and his business partner, in litigation with a former employee. Committee on Professional Ethics and Conduct of the Iowa State Bar Association v. Randall, 285 N.W.2d 161 (Iowa 1979), cert. denied, 446 U.S. 946, 100 S.Ct. 2175, 64 L.Ed.2d 802 (1980). ¹

Randall's disbarment in Iowa resulted from his actions, found to be a conflict of interest, in connection with drawing a will for Lovell Myers and also from Randall's representation of Myers's corporate interest. The complete findings of the Supreme Court of Iowa with regard to these matters are reported in Randall, supra, 285 N.W.2d at 161-65. We present below only a short summary of these findings.

In the early 1940's, Randall met Myers and entered into a joint venture for the purpose of purchasing and farming farmland in Iowa. Myers managed the day-to-day farming activities, while Randall handled the financial affairs. In 1952, Myers and Randall incorporated the farming operation, under the corporate name of Myers Farms, Inc., each receiving fifty percent of the stock.

Myers was divorced from his wife in the early 1940's. Myers did have a child, now Mrs. Marie Jensen, by way of the marriage. In 1949, she married and has had two sons. Myers was relatively close to his daughter and grandsons prior to his death in 1976. Randall contended this was not so, but the Supreme Court of Iowa found to the contrary.

The farming venture prospered under the ownership of Myers and Randall. In 1973, however, the farm foreman, Gilbert Morningstar, accused Myers of forging a deed to an eighty-acre tract of land which Morningstar acquired by warranty deed in 1956 from Charlie Hess. This deed was recorded on February 29, 1956. In 1967, a deed, admittedly forged by Myers, was signed, conveying the eighty acres from the Morningstars to Myers Farms, Inc. This forged deed was notarized by an associate in Randall's office. Later the corporation executed a $90,000 mortgage on this eighty acres, which mortgage also included other land belonging to the corporation. At the time Morningstar confronted Myers and Randall with the forged deed, Randall, at Myers's urging, prepared and executed a quit-claim deed to the land from the corporation to the Morningstars. Myers assured Morningstar that the mortgage would be released from this eighty-acre property. When the release was not forthcoming after about a year, Morningstar resigned from his employment and sued the corporation, Myers, and Randall to remove the mortgage and for damages. Randall represented himself and the corporation in the action surrounding the title to the land. See Morningstar v. Myers, 255 N.W.2d 159 (Iowa 1977). In that action, which was dismissed on January 17, 1979, by the parties, Randall claimed title to the land under a copy of an unrecorded deed antedating by a day the original, recorded deed to Morningstar. This alleged deed from the Morningstars was never filed of record and has never been produced, although a copy of it was produced by Randall in defense of the Morningstar suit. We note, however, that the corporation did not claim title under the purported unrecorded deed when it obtained a mortgage on the land in 1967.

Approximately one month after Morningstar accused Myers, in February 1973, of forging the land deed, Myers executed a will. The will was drawn by Randall and named Randall sole executor and sole beneficiary of Myers's estate, valued at over two million dollars. Randall placed the will in his private desk drawer, did not keep a copy in the office file, and apparently did not give a copy to Myers.

In early 1976, Myers died. A few days later, Randall asked Mrs. Jensen whether she knew of any will made by Myers, her father. She replied in the negative and inquired of Randall whether he knew of any. He said he did not. Less than a week later, Randall filed Myers's will in the probate court. Randall explained his denying knowledge of a will to Mrs. Jensen as a lapse of memory.

Mrs. Jensen subsequently filed a suit contesting the will. Randall settled the suit for approximately one and one-half million dollars. Prior to settlement, Mrs. Jensen filed a complaint against Randall with the Iowa Bar, which ultimately resulted in Randall's disbarment by the Supreme Court of Iowa.

Following the state disbarment, on January 17 and May 20, 1980, respectively, the United States District Courts for the Southern and Northern Districts of Iowa disbarred Randall from practice in their courts on the basis of the Supreme Court of Iowa's action in the state disbarment proceedings. Randall appeals these decisions in Appeals No. 80-1254 and 80-1545 respectively. On July 10, 1980, this court entered an order for Randall to show cause why he should not be suspended or disbarred by the Eighth Circuit. This original proceeding is No. 80-8117, wherein Randall contends he should not be disbarred from this court.

We affirm the decisions of the District Courts in disbarring Randall and in dismissing his 1983 action against the justices of the Supreme Court of Iowa, and we disbar Randall from the practice of law in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.

I.

The licensing of attorneys is primarily a state function, usually under the aegis and direction of the various states' highest courts. The federal courts, except in limited circumstances, recognize and give effect to the findings of disciplinary proceedings in the state courts.

The Iowa Supreme Court in a unanimous decision, with one justice not participating, held Randall to be in violation of the Iowa Code of Professional Responsibility and revoked his license. The United States Courts of Appeals are without jurisdiction to review a state judgment of disbarment. Jones v. Hulse, 391 F.2d 198, 202 (8th Cir.), cert. denied, 393 U.S. 889, 89 S.Ct. 206, 21 L.Ed.2d 167 (1968); e. g., Sawyer v. Overton, 595 F.2d 252 (5th Cir. 1979); Rivera v. Monge, 587 F.2d 539 (1st Cir. 1978). The only appeal from the Iowa court is by way of certiorari to the United States Supreme Court. See Konigsberg v. California, 353 U.S. 252, 258, 77 S.Ct. 722, 725, 1 L.Ed.2d 810 (1957) (limited review of state admission proceeding by Supreme Court on review by writ of certiorari); In re Summers, 325 U.S. 561, 568-69, 65 S.Ct. 1307, 1311-12, 89 L.Ed. 1795 (1945) (same).

With regard to Randall's potential disbarment from this court, however, we have jurisdiction to review the findings of the Supreme Court of Iowa. Still, this court must give high respect to the judgment of the state court in its disbarment proceedings. "But it is not conclusively binding on the federal courts." Theard v. United States, 354 U.S. 278, 77 S.Ct. 1274, 1 L.Ed.2d 1342 (1957). See In Re Ruffalo, 390 U.S. 544, 547, 88 S.Ct. 1222, 1224, 20 L.Ed.2d 117 (1968); Jones v. Hulse, supra, 391 F.2d at 200-01. "(D)isbarment by federal courts does not automatically flow from disbarment by state courts." Theard, supra, 354 U.S. at 282, 77 S.Ct. at 1276. The extent of the responsibility of a federal court to make an independent, de novo review was outlined by the Supreme Court in Selling v. Radford, 243 U.S. 46, 50-51, 37 S.Ct. 377, 378-379, 61 L.Ed. 585 (1916), wherein the Court stated:

That is to say, we are of opinion that we should recognize the condition created by the judgment of the state court unless, from an intrinsic consideration of the state record, one or all of the following conditions should appear: 1. That the state procedure from want of notice or opportunity to be heard was wanting in due process; 2, that there was such an infirmity of proof as to facts found to have established the want of fair private and professional character as to give rise to a clear conviction on our part that we could not consistently with our duty accept as final the conclusion on that subject or 3, that some other grave reason existed which should convince us that to allow the natural consequences of the judgment to have their effect would conflict with the duty which rests upon us not to disbar except upon the conviction that, under the principles of right and justice, we were constrained so to do.

II.

Since the crux of these regrettable proceedings rests primarily on the disbarment judgment of the Supreme Court of Iowa, we first consider the collateral attack, by way of the section 1983 complaint, on that judgment. The section 1983 injunctive remedy action was filed against the justices, individually, of the Supreme Court of Iowa. In his complaint, Randall charged that the justices deprived him of equal...