Case Title: State Ex Rel. Vining v. FLORIDA REAL ESTATE COM'N

Citation: 281 So. 2d 487

Docket Number: 

State: florida

Court: Florida Supreme Court

Date: 1973-04-04T00:00:00Z

Document:
281 So. 2d 487 (1973)
STATE of Florida ex rel. J. Bruce VINING, Relator,
v.
FLORIDA REAL ESTATE COMMISSION, Respondent.
No. 41138.

Supreme Court of Florida.
April 4, 1973.
Rehearing Denied September 12, 1973.
Edward C. Vining, Jr., and R.M. MacArthur, Miami, for relator.
Robert L. Powe, for respondent.
McCAIN, Justice.
Relator, a licensed real estate broker, was charged by the Florida Real Estate Commission with alleged violations of the *488 Real Estate License Law.[1] Inter alia, the information alleged four counts of failure to maintain trust funds in an escrow account in violation of Fla. Stat. § 475.25(1)(i), F.S.A.; four counts of breach of trust and dishonest dealing in a business transaction in violation of Fla. Stat. § 475.25(1)(a), F.S.A.; two counts of concealment and misrepresentation in a business transaction in violation of Fla. Stat. § 475.25(1)(a), F.S.A.; one count of failure to obtain a new registration certificate or otherwise inform the Commission of a change of business address as required by Fla. Stat. § 475.23, F.S.A.; one count of sharing offices with attorneys in violation of Commission Rule 315A-10.07;[2] and one count of engaging in a "course of conduct or practices showing he is so incompetent, negligent, dishonest and untruthful that the money, property, transactions and rights of investors or those with whom he may sustain a confidential relation may not safely be entrusted to him, all in violation of Fla. Stat. § 475.25(3), F.S.A."
Under protest, and "not waiving but on the contrary reserving each, every and all of his constitutional, both State and Federal, privileges, rights and immunities, particularly including, but not limited to his right to be accorded due process of law and his right not to be compelled to be a witness against himself ..." relator filed a sworn answer denying the specified charges as required by Fla. Stat. § 475.30(1), F.S.A., and Commission Rule 315A-16.01.[3] Additionally, relator moved to quash the information pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 475.30(2), F.S.A., alleging, inter alia, that (1) the requirement of a sworn answer violated his right to remain silent; (2) that he was denied due process of law by Commission rules limiting the taking of discovery depositions; and (3) that the Commission acted beyond its jurisdiction in undertaking to adjudicate questions of law. The motion to quash was denied by the Commission.
Thereupon, suggestion for writ of prohibition was filed by relator in this Court re-alleging the issues raised by motion to quash before the Commission. We issued the rule nisi and subsequently denied a motion to quash and dismiss for lack of jurisdiction.
We consider first relator's argument that the filing of a sworn answer pursuant to Fla. Stat. § 475.30(1), F.S.A., and Commission Rule 315A-16.01 violates the right to remain silent guaranteed to him by the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, Section 9 of the Florida Constitution, F.S.A. The oppugned statute provides in pertinent part:
Commission Rule 315A-16.01 interprets the quoted statutory language in the following manner:
Amendment V to the United States Constitution guarantees that "No person ... shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself." Fla. Const. Article I, § 9, F.S.A., is similarly (if somewhat more broadly) worded: "No person shall ... be compelled in any criminal matter to be a witness against himself." It is these provisions on which relator relies in seeking to overturn Fla. Stat. § 475.30(1).
Respondent correctly points out that this Court recently upheld the validity of the questioned statute in Kozerowitz v. Stack, 226 So. 2d 682 (Fla. 1969). However, the foundation for that decision was provided by an earlier decision of the Third District Court of Appeal, Robins v. Florida Real Estate Commission, 162 So. 2d 535 (Fla. App. 3rd, 1964), wherein the Court concluded as follows:
Thus, the decisive factor in Robins was the fact that the proceedings were administrative rather than criminal. Hence, the prohibitions of the Fifth Amendment did not apply.
Subsequent to the Robins decision, however, the right to remain silent was extended to proceedings "penal" in nature whether classified as criminal in the traditional sense or not, thereby bringing into question the premise from which both Robins and Kozerowitz were reasoned. In In Re Gault,[4] the U.S. Supreme Court, noting that juvenile delinquency proceedings, while not criminal per se, may lead to commitment in a state institution, made the following observations:
Admittedly, the juvenile proceedings described in Gault are different in type and possibly more serious in scope than the administrative action at issue in the instant case. However, Gault is significant for our purposes because it marks the beginning of a continuing trend toward application of the privilege against self-incrimination to "penal" proceedings regardless of their "criminal" status in the orthodox sense.[5]
An illustrative case in point is Spevack v. Klein, 385 U.S. 511, 87 S. Ct. 625, 17 L. Ed. 2d 574 (1967). There, a disbarment proceeding for professional misconduct was brought against petitioner Spevack, a member of the New York Bar, alleging refusal of petitioner to honor a subpoena duces tecum requiring production of financial records and his refusal to testify at the judicial inquiry. Petitioner's sole defense was that the production of the records and his testimony would tend to incriminate him. The Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court ordered petitioner disbarred, holding that the constitutional privilege against self-incrimination was not available to him as a lawyer. On certiorari, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed, relying on dissenting language in Cohen v. Hurley, 366 U.S. 117, 81 S. Ct. 954, 6 L. Ed. 2d 156 (1961) and the majority opinion in Malloy v. Hogan, 378 U.S. 1, 84 S. Ct. 1489, 12 L. Ed. 2d 653 (1964).[6] In pertinent part, the Court commented:
In our judgment, logic and reason demand that the rationale of Spevack be applied not only to disbarment proceedings, but as well to other types of administrative proceedings which may result in deprivation of livelihood. Certainly, threatened loss of professional standing through revocation of his real estate license is as serious and compelling to the realtor as disbarment is to the attorney. In succinct terms, it is our view that the right to remain silent applies not only to the traditional criminal case, but also to proceedings "penal" in nature in that they tend to degrade the individual's professional standing, professional reputation or livelihood. Spevack v. Klein, supra; Stockham v. Stockham, 168 So. 2d 320 (Fla. 1964).
In the instant case, the penalty for failure to respond by means of a sworn answer to charges made by the Real Estate Commission is the entry of a default judgment against the defendant which may result in suspension or revocation of the realtor's license. Fla. Stat. § 475.30(3), F.S.A. Thus, it is apparent that the Fla. Stat. § 475.30(1), F.S.A., has a coercive effect in that it requires a defendant to answer allegations made against him or suffer possible loss of livelihood. The requirement that the answer be "verified" or sworn to produces an additional coercive effect in that it exposes the defendant to a possible perjury proceeding if he does not respond truthfully to the charges against him. However, we regard the latter effect of the statute as secondary in importance to the fact that the defendant is required to respond at all. The basic constitutional infirmity of the statute lies in requirement of a response under threat of license *492 revocation or suspension, which amounts to compelling the defendant to be a witness against himself within the meaning of the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and Article I, § 9 of the Florida Constitution, F.S.A.
It is not our intention to attempt "judicial legislation" to correct the infirmities of Fla. Stat. § 475.30(1), F.S.A. Until the Florida Legislature enacts new legislation to replace the expunged language, the Real Estate Commission will be required to proceed without responses from realtors charged with violations of the Real Estate Licensing Law. However, we do not view this state of affairs as imposing an undue hardship on the Commission. In criminal matters the State must prosecute without benefit of a statement from the defendant, unless the defendant, within the framework of his constitutional rights and privileges, volunteers information to the State. Since the burden of proving the defendant's guilt is the obligation of the State in any event, requiring the defendant to speak would amount to compelling the defendant to prove the State's case for it. This, of course, is the evil sought to be remedied by the Fifth Amendment right to silence.
The same situation obtains in the instant case. As in other types of disciplinary proceedings,[7] the burden of proving relator violated the Real Estate Licensing Law is on the Real Estate Commission as the initiator of the proceedings.[8] Thus, by requiring the defendant to answer, the Commission is clearly seeking to shift to defendant the burden of proving his own guilt. As we have said, this result is constitutionally impermissible. Presumably, a legislative enactment allowing but not requiring a defendant to answer would not be constitutionally objectionable, but we are not confronted with such a provision here.
We are not impressed by relator's remaining assertions. It is axiomatic that a party does not have a vested right to any particular remedy or form of proceedings. The record does not disclose that relator was denied due process of law because of Commission rules limiting the taking of discovery depositions. He has been fully informed of the nature of the charges against him and is entitled to be heard and to present all matters in his own defense at a hearing before the Commission. This is all that is necessary to afford due process of law in an administrative proceeding.[9]
Lastly, with regard "to questions of law", it is well established that administrative bodies vested with "quasi-judicial" authority frequently must adjudicate questions of law in the exercise of their powers. However, since the adjudication of questions of law is in the last analysis a purely judicial prerogative, the exercise of this power by an administrative agency is reviewable by a court of competent jurisdiction. State ex rel. Williams v. Whitman, 116 Fla. 196, 150 So. 136, 156 So. 705, 95 A.L.R. 1416 (1934); State ex rel. Sbordy v. Rowlett, supra. We find no error on this point.
Accordingly, the writ of prohibition is issued and respondent is hereby restrained and prohibited from enforcing Fla. Stat. § 475.30(1) to the extent that requires a defendant in a discipline proceeding before the Real Estate Commission to respond to the charges against him. The cause is remanded *493 to the Real Estate Commission with directions that the answer of relator previously filed before that body be expunged from the record, and for such further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion as the Commission may wish to undertake.
It is so ordered.
ROBERTS, Acting C.J., and ERVIN, ADKINS and DEKLE, JJ., concur.
[1]  Chapter 475, Florida Statutes, F.S.A.
[2]  Now renumbered to Rule 21V-10.07.
[3]  Now renumbered to Rule 21V-15.01.
[4]  387 U.S. 1, 87 S. Ct. 1428, 18 L. Ed. 2d 527 (1967).
[5]  See for example, Garrity v. New Jersey, 385 U.S. 493, 87 S. Ct. 616, 17 L. Ed. 2d 562 (1967) (discharge of police officers for invoking the right to silence reversed); Gardner v. Broderick, 392 U.S. 273, 88 S. Ct. 1913, 20 L. Ed. 2d 1082 (1968) (discharge of patrolman reversed); and Uniformed Sanitation Men Association v. Commissioner of Sanitation of City of New York, 392 U.S. 280, 88 S. Ct. 1917, 20 L. Ed. 2d 1089 (1968) (unconstitutional to dismiss sanitation employees for refusal to waive privilege against self-incrimination).
[6]  The "majority" opinion in Spevack was concurred in by Justices Douglas, Warren, Black and Brennan. Justice Fortas concurred in the judgment but was of the opinion that a distinction should be made between the attorney's right to remain silent and that of a public employee who is asked questions relating to the performance of his official duties. Justice Fortas went on to note: "I agree that Spevack could not be disbarred for asserting his privilege against self-incrimination." Thus, a true majority of the Court concluded that the right to silence was applicable to the lawyer and operated to prevent his disbarment as a penalty for its invocation.
[7]  For example, see The Florida Bar v. Schonbrun, 257 So. 2d 6 (Fla. 1971) which places on The Bar the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence the misconduct of an attorney.
[8]  Ringo v. Owens, 54 So. 2d 366 (Fla. 1951); Reid v. Florida Real Estate Commission, 188 So. 2d 846 (Fla.App.2d, 1966).
[9]  State ex rel. Munch v. Davis, 143 Fla. 236, 196 So. 491 (1940); State ex rel. Railroad Commissioners v. Florida East Coast R. Co., 64 Fla. 112, 59 So. 385 (1912); State ex rel. Hand v. McDonald, 154 Fla. 456, 18 So. 2d 16 (1944); State ex rel. Jordan v. Pattishall, 99 Fla. 296, 126 So. 147 (1930); State ex rel. Sbordy v. Rowlett, 125 Fla. 562, 170 So. 311 (1936).