Saier v. State Bar of Michigan, 14462.

• Decision Date: 04 August 1961
• Docket Number: No. 14462.,14462.
• Citation: 293 F.2d 756
• Parties: Herbert E. SAIER v. STATE BAR OF MICHIGAN and The Supreme Court of The State of Michigan, et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Sixth Circuit

293 F.2d 756 (1961)

Herbert E. SAIER v. STATE BAR OF MICHIGAN and The Supreme Court of The State of Michigan, et al.

No. 14462.

United States Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit.

August 4, 1961.

Herbert E. Saier, in pro. per.

J. Cameron Hall, Detroit, Mich., for State Bar of Michigan.

Joseph B. Bilitzke, Lansing, Mich., Paul L. Adams, Atty. Gen. of Michigan, Samuel J. Torina, Sol. Gen., Lansing, Mich., on the brief, for Supreme Court of Michigan and others.

Before MILLER, Chief Judge, and CECIL and O'SULLIVAN, Circuit Judges.

CECIL, Circuit Judge.

The United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan, Southern Division, dismissed the complaint of the plaintiff-appellant for the reason that it did not contain facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. Herbert E. Saier, plaintiff-appellant appeals to this Court, seeking a reversal of the order of dismissal.

The defendants in the District Court and appellees here are State Bar of Michigan, several officers and former officers of the State Bar of Michigan, who are sued in their official capacity and individually, and the justices and former justices of the Supreme Court of Michigan, who are sued individually and in their judicial capacity.

Mr. Saier brought this action as a diversity of citizenship case, alleging that he was a citizen of Missouri and that he was damaged in excess of $10,000, exclusive of interest and costs. The district judge considered the complaint as an attempt to state a cause of action under section 1983 of Title 42 U.S.C.A., known as "The deprivation of civil rights act." The appeal is argued to us as such an action. The appellant has apparently abandoned any claim to jurisdiction by reason of diversity of citizenship. We consider that no cause of action is stated as a diversity case and therefore do not discuss that theory further.

We are of the opinion, as was the district judge, that if any cause of action is stated, the facts as alleged would invoke jurisdiction by virtue of the civil rights act. The question presented then is whether there are sufficient facts alleged in the complaint to show that the appellant was deprived of any "right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution of the United States or by any Act of Congress providing for equal rights of citizens or of all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States." Section 1343(3), Title 28 U.S.C.¹

The pertinent facts as alleged in the complaint are as follows: On July 16, 1956, the plaintiff-appellant filed a complaint against four lawyers of the Michigan Bar, in the office of the State Bar of Michigan, at Lansing, with Executive Secretary Milton E. Bachman and Executive Assistant Joseph C. Cox. The lawyers involved in the charge were notified of the charges contained in the complaint. The appellant filed an amended and corrected request for investigation on September 10, 1956. On October 3, 1956, Mr. Bachman and Mr. Cox advised him that he had to make out new forms. He refused to do this and on November 15, 1956 filed a petition for a writ of mandamus with the Supreme Court of Michigan. This petition was denied and subsequently he filed another petition with the same court for writ of mandamus which was also denied.

The complaint does not state the specific charges that were made against the accused lawyers, but inferentially it appears that they involve "* * * unethical conduct, false testimony and attempted murder with a deadly weapon, and with charges of their taking of a complete file out of the Probate Court of the County of Ingham, Michigan."

There is reference in the complaint to suits in various courts of Michigan both past and now pending. It is alleged that three of the accused lawyers have commenced an action on the equity side of the court, in Ingham County, Circuit Court.

No disciplinary action has been taken against the lawyers named in the request for investigation, and the appellant claims that his complaint has not been processed by the Michigan State Bar. This he claims is a denial of a right guaranteed to him under the Fourteenth Amendment of the Federal Constitution. Specifically, he claims it is a denial of due process of law, a denial of equal protection of the laws and unjust discrimination.

The pertinent part of the amendment reads, as follows: "No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws."

The question before the Court is a very narrow one. To determine that question, we are not concerned with what might be the ultimate outcome of a hearing of the charges against the accused lawyers. Neither is the seriousness of the misconduct complained of material for our determination of the question involved.

Assuming that the appellant's "Request for investigation" of certain attorneys has been denied by the State Bar of Michigan, has he been denied a right which is given to him by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution?

Section 1983 of Title 42 U.S.C. A. provides that an action may be brought for redress of the "deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution * * *" (Federal). If the appellant has been denied the right of which he complains, his redress would be to have the District Court order the processing of the complaint by the State Bar. The ultimate that he might expect from this would be the disbarment of the accused lawyers. This might give him a certain amount of personal satisfaction but no material gain would result to him as a consequence of such action. It would not give him any judgment against the lawyers of whose misconduct he complains and whose actions caused him financial loss. Therefore, he has not been deprived of "life, liberty, or property * * *." There are no allegations in the complaint to support a charge of a denial of equal protection of the laws or that he has been the subject of unjust discrimination.

Not only has he not suffered, according to the allegations of his complaint, any deprivation of a right under the Federal Constitution as a matter of fact, but legally no such right as he claims is guaranteed to him by the Federal Constitution.

License to practice law, the continuation of such license, regulation of the practice and the procedure for disbarment and discipline are all matters that are within the province of an individual state. As in Michigan, the creation of the office of attorney, the regulation and control of the practice of law, along with the procedure of disbarment is governed by "The Judicature Act" under the headings "Attorneys and Counselors," section 27.68 et seq. and "State Bar Association," sections 27.101 and 27.102, respectively, of Title 27, Michigan Statutes Annotated, Comp.Laws 1948, §§ 555.18 et seq., 691.51, 691.52; Rule 15, State Bar of Michigan.

In In re Lockwood, Petitioner, 154 U.S. 116, at page 117, 14 S.Ct. 1082 at page 1083, 38 L.Ed. 929, the court said: "In Bradwell v. The State, 16 Wall. 130 (83 U.S. 130), 21 L.Ed. 442, it was held that the right to practice law in the state courts was not a privilege or immunity of a citizen of the United States; that the right to control and regulate the granting of license to practise law in the courts of a State is one of those powers that was not transferred for its protection to the federal government, and its exercise is in no manner governed or controlled by citizenship of the United States in the party seeking such license." (Emphasis added.) And in 154 U.S. at page 118, 14 S.Ct. at page 1083: "It was for the supreme court of appeals to construe the statute of Virginia in question, and to determine whether the word `person' as therein used is confined to males, and whether women are admitted to practice law in that Commonwealth." See also: Yeiser v. Dysart, 267 U.S. 540, 45 S.Ct. 399, 69 L.Ed. 775; Ayres v. Hadaway, 303 Mich. 589, 595, 6 N.W. 2d 905.

In Theard v. United States, 354 U.S. 278, at page 281, 77 S.Ct. 1274, at page 1276, 1 L.Ed.2d 1342, the court said: "It is not for this Court, except within the narrow limits for review open to this Court, as recently canvassed in Konigsberg v. State Bar of California, 353 U.S. 252, 77 S.Ct. 722, 1 L.Ed.2d 810, and Schware v. Board of Bar Examiners, 353 U.S. 232, 77 S.Ct. 752, 1 L.Ed.2d 796, to sit in judgment on Louisiana disbarments, and we are not in any event sitting in review of the Louisiana judgment. While a lawyer is admitted into a federal court by way of a state court, he is not automatically sent out of the federal court by the same route. The two judicial systems of courts, the state judicatures and the federal judiciary, have autonomous control over the conduct of their officers, among whom, in the present context, lawyers are included. The court's control over a lawyer's professional life derives from his relation to the responsibilities of a court." See also: Selling v. Radford, 243 U.S. 46, 37 S.Ct. 377, 61 L.Ed. 585; In re Crow, 6 Cir., 283 F.2d...