Title: Petition of Pacheco

State: new-mexico

Issuer: New Mexico Supreme Court

Document:

514 P.2d 1297 (1973) 85 N.M. 600 Petition of Jacobo E. PACHECO for a review of Petitioner's March and August, 1972 Bar Examination papers and for admission to the New Mexico Bar. No. 9739. Supreme Court of New Mexico. October 12, 1973. Jacobo E. Pacheco, pro se, for petitioner. Olmsted & Cohen, Charles D. Olmsted, Santa Fe, for respondent. PER CURIAM: The petition filed in this proceeding seeks review and an evaluation by this court of petitioner's answers to the March and August 1972 bar examinations given and graded by the New Mexico Board of Bar Examiners (Board). The petitioner further requests an evidentiary hearing. The Board has asserted three defenses to the petition. The third defense is that the petition fails to state a claim upon which the relief requested can properly be granted. A hearing was conducted on the Board's third defense and it is basically on a consideration thereof that we decide this cause. In his petition, the petitioner makes a number of allegations concerning bar examinations, their effectiveness and their validity. In substance, these allegations are: These contentions by petitioner raise the query as to whether he was denied due process and equal protection of the law. Similar complaints have been voiced and held to be groundless in other jurisdictions throughout the country, as in Chaney v. State Bar of California, 386 F.2d 962 (9th Cir.1967), wherein the Court said: Rule 19 of the Rules Governing Bar Examiners, Bar Examinations and Admission to the Bar of the State of New Mexico reads: See also, Application of Peterson, 459 P.2d 703, 39 A.L.R.3d 708 (Alaska, 1969); Staley v. State Bar of California, 17 Cal. 2d 119, 109 P.2d 667 (1941); Salot v. State Bar of California, 3 Cal. 2d 615, 45 P.2d 203 (1935); In re Avery's Petition, 44 Hawaii 597, 358 P.2d 709 (1961); In re Reid's Petition, 76 Nev. 76, 349 P.2d 446 (1960). Petitioner urges that he was denied equal protection of the law because the Board has established one procedure for reviewing complaints against denials of admission on the grounds of character and another procedure for reviewing failures on bar examinations. See Rules 10 and 23 of the Rules Governing Bar Examiners, Bar Examinations and Admission to the Bar of the State of New Mexico (28th Ed. 1972). Certainly a rational basis exists for the difference in the treatment of the two classes of applicants. A character evaluation is largely predicated upon reports of misconduct and upon judgments by those to whom an applicant's activities and behavior are well known. To a large degree the truth or falsity of reported acts of misconduct, questionable activities, or abnormal or unusual behavior can be tested and determined by investigations, hearings and appeals as provided in Rule 10, supra. Whereas, the testing procedures adhered to in conducting a bar examination are essentially objective and result in an essentially objective evaluation of the qualities being tested. As stated in Davis, Administrative Law Text, § 7.10, at 173 (3d Ed. 1972): Examiners' conclusions are obviously rarely challenged because the results reached by a bar examination are far more likely to result in fairer evaluations of intellectual qualifications than could be attained by checking transcripts of law school courses, credits and grades, by reading letters of recommendations from friends, or by hearing and evaluating evidence in a due process hearing. There is a rational basis for according an applicant a full due process hearing in the area of character determinations, and denying such full hearing on the matter of the validity of determinations as to intellectual and learning qualifications arrived at by examination or testing in accordance with recognized procedures. Petitioner further challenges the minimum passing score set by the Board and the methods by which the examinations are graded. The rules of this court referred to above do not specify a minimum passing score for its bar examination and the establishment in the Board of minimum passing scores and the examination itself has been left in the discretion of the Board. In the Matter of the Petition of Michael Alarid, Jr., et al., for Court Review of the *1300 August 1972 Bar Examination Procedures and for Admission to the New Mexico Bar (filed June 22, 1973), this court stated: This reasoning would apply to all of the bar examinations with which this petitioner is concerned. Petitioner seeks a "meaningful," evidentiary hearing to demonstrate his qualifications. The Alarid case, supra, answers this point by stating that: In Feldman v. State Board of Law Examiners, 438 F.2d 699 (8th Cir.1971), footnote 6, at 703, the nature of a Board of Law Examiners and its proceedings, and the inappropriateness of the hearing process to its determinations, were referred to in the following language: Furthermore, a number of jurisdictions have held that a review of one's bar examination answers will not be made by a court in the absence of an allegation that there was fraud, coercion, imposition or other misconduct on the part of the bar examiners in connection with an applicant admission to the bar. Application of Heaney, 106 Ariz. 391, 476 P.2d 846 (1970); Chaney v. State Bar of California, 386 F.2d 962 (9th Cir.1967); Staley v. State Bar of California, supra; Salot v. State Bar of California, supra; In re Monaghan, 126 Vt. 193, 225 A.2d 387 (1967). The petitioner herein has neither alleged nor demonstrated fraud, coercion or imposition on the part of the Board of Bar Examiners. Petitioner further requests that the Board be directed to furnish him with copies of the March and August 1972 bar examination questions, model answers thereto, sample passing and failing answers, and petitioner's answers to said questions. Rule 23 of the Rules Governing Bar Examiners, supra, grants an unsuccessful applicant a reasonable review of the questions asked, his answers thereto, and a sample of a passing answer to each question. We understand petitioner has taken advantage of this right of review. We are of the opinion that this right is reasonable, and we decline to order the Board to grant petitioner's requests. We are not convinced that a rule requiring, or even permitting the Board to furnish an unsuccessful applicant the requested copies of examination matters would be reasonable or proper, or would in any way serve the purpose for giving bar examinations. Petitioner in his reply brief in opposition to respondent's motion to dismiss refers to *1301 alleged unprofessional conduct on the part of the Board's counsel. We deem it unnecessary to discuss these allegations. Petitioner also questions the efficacy of bar examinations as being the proper device to determine his qualifications for admission to practice law, but it is a recognized means of testing some of the qualities essential in a successful practitioner and a means of demonstrating capabilities which are required of every practitioner for the protection of the public and the proper perpetuation of our legal system. See Chaney v. State Bar of California, supra. This precise question was before the Alaska Supreme Court in Application of Peterson, supra, and that court disposed of the contention in the following language (459 P.2d 703, 704, 39 A.L.R.3d 710, 711): With respect to the same argument as is being made by petitioner herein, that his educational and work experience and recommendations from practicing lawyers are sufficient to qualify him for admission, regardless of his having failed to pass a bar examination, the Alaska court, in the same case, stated: We agree with the statements of the Alaska court, as quoted above, and which, together with our rules, amply support the position that petitioner has no cause for complaint. Accordingly, we hold that there has been no denial of "due process" or "equal protection." For the reasons stated herein the motion of the Board of Bar Examiners to dismiss the petition is granted. It is so ordered.