Selig, In re

• Decision Date: 26 June 1969
• Citation: 32 A.D.2d 213,302 N.Y.S.2d 94
• Parties: In the Matter of Arthur V. SELIG, an Attorney.
• Court: New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division

Page 94

302 N.Y.S.2d 94

32 A.D.2d 213

In the Matter of Arthur V. SELIG, an Attorney.

Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department.

June 26, 1969.

Frederick J. Waters, New York City, for respondent.

John G. Bonomi, New York City, of counsel (Michael Franck and John A. Astorina, New York City, with him on the brief), for petitioner The Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Before STEVENS, P.J., and EAGER, CAPOZZOLI, NUNEZ and McNALLY, JJ.

PER CURIAM:

Respondent was admitted to practice in the First Department on November 13, 1933. Hearings have been had before a referee consequent on charges filed. The charges arose out of a New York County grand jury investigation. In testimony before the grand jury, respondent admitted that on five separate occasions he paid sums of $2,500, $5,000, $7,500, $10,000 and $10,000, respectively, to a law office associate of Martin C. Epstein, then Chairman of the New York State Liquor Authority. These payments were made on behalf of clients to procure favorable disposition of their matters before the Authority. When first summoned before the grand jury, respondent refused to testify and was cited for and adjudged in contempt. He then asked permission to purge himself of the contempt charge and testify. He now claims his grand jury testimony, admitted in evidence before the referee, was forced and compelled and is incompetent and inadmissible in this proceeding against him.

The applicable authorities fail to sustain respondent's position. Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S.Ct. 1489, 12 L.Ed.2d 653, held the Fourteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution applicable to the States included the privileges and immunities granted by the Amendment. Thereafter, Spevack v. Klein, 385 U.S. 511, 87 S.Ct. 625, 17 L.Ed.2d 574, was decided on Jan. 16, 1967. This case held that an attorney may not be disciplined solely by reason of the assertion of his privilege under the 5th Amendment. Garrity v. State of New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493, 87 S.Ct. 616, 17 L.Ed.2d 562, decided the same day, is to the effect that testimony coerced by a statutory provision for loss of employment resulting from the claim of the Fifth Amendment privilege may not be used against the affiant in a criminal proceeding. The said holdings, however, do not proscribe the use of compelled testimony resulting from the grant of immunity in a proceeding other than a criminal action or proceeding. Moreover, it has been specifically held that such evidence is admissible in a disciplinary proceeding. (Matter of Zuckerman v. Greason, 20 N.Y.2d 430, 438, 285 N.Y.S.2d 1, 6, 231 N.E.2d 718, 721, Cert. den. 390 U.S. 925, 88 S.Ct. 856, 19 L.Ed.2d 985; Matter of Ungar, 27 A.D.2d 925, 282 N.Y.S.2d 158, Lv. to app. den. Ungar v. Ass'n of the Bar, 20 N.Y.2d 642, Cert. den. 389 U.S. 1007, 88 S.Ct. 564, 19 L.Ed.2d 603; Matter of Klebanoff, 21 N.Y.2d 920, 289 N.Y.S.2d 755, 237 N.E.2d 75.)

By stipulation dated June 11, 1968, entered into between the District Attorney of New York County, the attorney for petitioner and the attorney for respondent, it was stipulated as follows:

'That without the evidence obtained through, and the leads obtained from conversations overheard in the offices of Albert E. Klapper by the eavesdropping devices placed as described in the first paragraph, the District Attorney was not aware of the identity of the respondent, had no information upon which to proceed to question the respondent before the Grand Jury, or had no basis with which to prosecute the respondent herein for any of the crimes under investigation by the District Attorney as aforesaid and that all of the evidence and the leads obtained concerning which the respondent herein was questioned by the Chief Assistant District Attorney and others of his staff when respondent appeared and testified as a witness before the fourth December 1962 Grand Jury on June 10th and 11th, 1963 in the Borough of Manhattan, City of New York, as well as the questions previously put to respondent by the Chief Assistant District Attorney before the same Grand Jury and before Mr. Justice Culkin, Justice of the Supreme Court, on June 5, 1963 and June 6, 1963 were so obtained from such eavesdropping activities on the part of the District Attorney and his agents and that all the evidence and all the leads were derived therefrom.'

The fact that the leads enabling the District Attorney to elicit respondent's said grand jury testimony in June 1963 may have derived from 'bugs' during 1962 does not avail respondent, even if it be assumed that the bugging was illegal. Respondent's position on this issue is grounded on Berger v. People, 388 U.S. 41, 87 S.Ct. 1873, 18 L.Ed.2d 1040, decided June 12, 1967. The Court of Appeals held that Berger, insofar as it declared unconstitutional the bugging statute, is not to be applied retroactively (People v. Kaiser, 21 N.Y.2d 86, 286 N.Y.S.2d 801, 233 N.E.2d 818). Hence, respondent's argument that the 1962 'bugs' are illegal is without merit.

The stipulation, it may be noted, is limited to the eavesdropping devices in the offices of Albert E. Klapper. The record shows that respondent was not a party to any of the conversations overheard in the offices of Albert Klapper. The...