Young v. Champion

• Decision Date: 29 June 1977
• Docket Number: No. 53917,No. 3,53917,3
• Citation: 142 Ga.App. 687,236 S.E.2d 783
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals
• Parties: Mary YOUNG v. Joe S. CHAMPION, City Recorder

Page 783

236 S.E.2d 783

142 Ga.App. 687

Mary YOUNG v. Joe S. CHAMPION, City Recorder.

No. 53917.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 3.

June 29, 1977.

King, Phipps & Associates, Herbert E. Phipps, C. B. King, Albany, for appellant.

Landau & Davis, James V. Davis, C. Nathan Davis, Albany, for appellee.

MARSHALL, Judge.

The appellant appeals her disqualification to practice law before the Recorder's Court of the City of Albany and a citation and conviction for contempt by the city recorder with a three-day jail term, suspended.

The facts indicate that the appellant is a duly licensed attorney and a member of the State Bar of Georgia in good standing. She also is an elected commissioner of the City of Albany. It is uncontested that the Board of Commissioners of the City of Albany select the judge of the recorder's court. As such, the commissioners are in effect the employers of the recorder. In a case pending before the recorder, the appellant appeared as counsel for one of the parties. The recorder informed the appellant that, because of her status as employer of the presiding judge, she was disqualified from appearing before him because of a potential conflict of interest between the attorney and judge. Inasmuch as the appellant insisted upon her right to practice her profession, the judge attempted to obtain one of the other commissioners to preside, as they were empowered to act as recorder when the appointed recorder was absent or otherwise unavailable. Being unable to obtain another commissioner, the judge postponed the hearing. At the next calling of the case, the appellant again appeared as counsel. The recorder allowed the appellant to remain in the courtroom, but advised her that she would not be allowed to represent the client in the proceedings because of the potential conflict of interest. After the first witness had been examined, the appellant attempted to cross-examine the witness. When she refused to cease and desist, the recorder ordered her to remove herself from the courtroom. The appellant asserted that the only way she would leave the courtroom was under arrest. At that point the appellant was held in contempt of court, and after the trial was completed, she was sentenced to three days in jail, suspended. Upon certiorari to the superior court, the judgment of the recorder was affirmed. The appellant enumerates as error the affirmance of the disqualification and contempt conviction, alleging that she is being unconstitutionally deprived of her right to practice her profession and that the contempt conviction was contrary to law, as being without the power of the recorder. Held :

1. The preamble of the Canons of Ethics of this state provides: "In this State, where the stability of Courts and of all departments of government rests upon the approval of the people, it is peculiarly essential that the system for establishing and dispensing Justice be developed to a high point of efficiency and so maintained that the public shall have absolute confidence in the integrity and impartiality of its administration. The future of this State and the Republic, of which it is a member, to a great extent depends upon our maintenance of Justice pure and unsullied. It cannot be so maintained unless the conduct and motives of the members of our profession are such as to merit the approval of all just men." Preamble, Ch. 1, Part III, Appendix; 219 Ga. 885 (1963). Moreover, Rule 3-103 provides in part that a lawyer deserves rebuke and denunciation for any device or attempt to gain from a judge special personal consideration or favor. 219 Ga. 887. There is no contention or indication in this record that the appellant attempted to sway or seek personal favor from the recorder. Yet, the disqualification was to avoid the appearance of impropriety of an attorney, who, as an elected official, was the superior and employer of the judge, but who nevertheless sought to appear in an adversary position before a judge who was sworn to impartiality. It is an old and well-established maxim of law that the appearance of evil is as much to be abhorred as is the evil itself.

While we have been unable to find a case directly on point, we are satisfied that the general principles dealing with the ethics concerning conflicting interests have full vitality in a situation such as this as much as in those situations where an attorney represents two clients with conflicting interests. It goes without citation that an attorney is an officer of the court, and, as such, occupies a unique and high calling with equally high obligations to maintain professional integrity and conduct. This high office as an attorney incapacitates the attorney from representing different interests which are adverse in the sense that they are hostile, antagonistic or in conflict with each other. Womble v. Womble, 228 Ga. 10, 183 S.E.2d 747 (1971); Tilley v. King, 190 Ga. 421, 9 S.E.2d 670 (1940); Corvair Furniture Mfg. Co. v. Bull, 125 Ga.App. 141, 186 S.E.2d 559 (1971). Where the fact that an attorney represents conflicting...