Source: http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/287/287mass577.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 15:16:21+00:00

Document:
IN THE MATTER OF WILFRED B. KEENAN.
Present: RUGG, C.J., PIERCE, FIELD, & LUMMUS, JJ.
A proceeding for the disbarment of an attorney at law is an "action" to which the provisions of G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 233, s. 65, are applicable.
(3) The mere fact that no cross-examination of the declarant was possible did not affect the admissibility of the statements as evidence.
(3) The statements were made "before the commencement of the action" and therefore satisfied that requirement of the statute.
PETITION, filed in the Supreme Judicial Court for the county of Suffolk on December 1, 1931, by certain citizens of the Commonwealth, and described in the opinion.
Hearings by a commissioner appointed under the prayers of the petition, an order of notice issued to Wilfred B. Keenan, evidence at hearings by Donahue, J., and his findings and rulings are described in the opinion. The single justice directed an order of disbarment. The respondent alleged exceptions.
G. Alpert, (A. L. Brown & E. Brown with him,) for the respondent.
H. S. Davis, (F. A. Crafts with him,) appointed by the court to conduct the proceedings.
testimony was found to be adequately corroborated, and the respondent was found to have corruptly influenced three jurymen in that case and was thereby guilty of gross misconduct. The corroborating evidence consisted of statements made by one of those jurymen who died on April 19, 1933. The single justice found that the statements were made by him in good faith, upon his personal knowledge and before the charges against the respondent were filed in court. The respondent duly excepted to the admission of these statements. The evidence tended to show that the statements were made by the deceased juryman (after a promise by the Attorney General of immunity from prosecution for anything he might have done to be disclosed in the hearing) under oath before the commissioner, that they were taken by a stenographer and transcribed, and a properly identified copy was presented. The statements were made on February 9, 1933.
After the trial the single justice filed written findings, rulings and an order for disbarment. The respondent thereupon filed in writing a claim of exceptions to the "findings, rulings and order." The only ruling of law affecting the respondent was that relating to the admission of the statements of the deceased juryman. Whether that ruling was correct is the only question presented. Keohane, petitioner, 179 Mass. 69. Parker v. Levin, 285 Mass. 125, 129.
requires declarations or statements to be received which under the common law were excluded because obnoxious to the rule against hearsay evidence. It was designed to remedy a defect in the law of evidence as theretofore administered. It ought to be and has been consistently construed liberally to extend rather than to restrict the intended relief and to effectuate its corrective purpose. Hall v. Reinherz, 192 Mass. 52, 53. Randall v. Peerless Motor Car Co. 212 Mass. 352, 384, 385. Tenney v. Foss, 268 Mass. 69, 71. It has not been confined to actions at law or to actions in any constricted sense. It has been held to apply to suits in equity, Smedley v. Johnson, 196 Mass. 316, 318, to petitions and proceedings in the Land Court, Murphy v. Hanright, 238 Mass. 200, 206, and to proceedings of various kinds in the Probate Court, Phillips v. Chase, 201 Mass. 444, 447, Stitt v. Tribe, 270 Mass. 204, 206. A chief contention of the respondent is that the statute is confined in operation to evidence offered in an "action" and that a disbarment proceeding is not an "action." The word "action" in the governing statute occurs in connection with the words "before the commencement of the action." The main purpose of this clause is to fix a limit of time as to when the declaration must be made in order to be admissible. It does not appear to be designed to be a restrictive classification of the particular civil proceedings in which the declaration may be admissible.
v. Casey, 211 Mass. 187. A disbarment proceeding is an inquest or an inquiry into the conduct of the attorney. It is the pursuit of a right as well as the performance of a duty by or in behalf of the court to purge its officers of an unworthy member. It involves no private interest except that of the attorney. It is the invocation of a remedy to protect the courts and the public from the impositions arising from the presence of an unfit person among,trusted officers. It does not afford redress for a private grievance. It is an action undertaken and carried forward solely for the public welfare. It belongs to the class of cases to which a statute designed to relax a rule of evidence thought to be too strict and narrow for ordinary litigation would normally be made applicable. Section 65 is a statute which the courts would naturally adopt by analogy in that class of cases even if less clearly applicable as matter of interpretation. Strout v. United Shoe Machinery Co. 215 Mass. 116, 119. Commonwealth v. Hassan, 235 Mass. 26, 31. Attorney General v. Pelletier, 240 Mass. 264, 306. Corey v. Tuttle, 249 Mass. 135, 138.
Statutes may be found where a broader word than "action" has been used. There are decisions giving to the word "action" a narrower scope. It is not necessary to review them because we are satisfied from the history, purpose and course of interpretation of the present statute that it applies to proceedings like the present.
The conclusion that the statute rightly interpreted is applicable to a disbarment proceeding is supported precisely by In re Wilcox, 90 Kans. 646, and in principle by O'Brien's Petition, 79 Conn. 46, and Dinsmore v. Barker, 61 Utah, 332. See also Weston v. City Council of Charleston, 2 Pet. 449, 464, where the word "suit" was held to be comprehensive enough to include a petition for a writ of prohibition.
solely an administrative tribunal. It is matter of common knowledge that a comparatively small proportion of those claims ever reach the courts. They have few of the characteristics of an action at law. Yet it was held upon full consideration that the statute was applicable to such proceedings. That decision governs the case at bar.
Both on principle and on authority in our opinion the statute is applicable to disbarment proceedings. Whether apart from the statute the evidence might have been rightly received need not be decided.
The case at bar is distinguishable from Brady v. Doherty, 253 Mass. 518, 524, and Mahan v. Perkins, 274 Mass. 176, 179, where it was held that the statute was not applicable to declarations made by a testator offered in trials as to the proof of wills. Such declarations were admissible before the enactment of the statute for the restricted purpose of showing his mental condition and feelings and the statute was held not to enlarge the scope of such declarations. Rules as to the admissibility of a decedent's declarations peculiar to the trial of contests over wills had been developed which it was thought that the Legislature did not intend to dislodge or disturb. Those decisions rest upon the law as to proof of certain issues in will cases and not on any definition of the terms of the statute. It is also plainly distinguishable from Commonwealth v. Gallo, 275 Mass. 320, 335, 336, where it was held that the statute applied not to prosecutions for crime, but to civil procedure only. The reasoning of those decisions has no pertinency to the case at bar.
promised immunity from prosecution for his revelations did not render his statements inadmissible. That they were not subject to cross-examination does not affect their admissibility as evidence. The person making the declarations rendered by the statute competent as evidence cannot in the nature of things be subjected to cross-examination. Only the person testifying as to those declarations can be cross-examined with respect to them. There was no error in admission of the declarations. Hasey v. Boston, 228 Mass. 516. Ames v. New York, New Haven & Hartford Railroad, 221 Mass. 304.
The statements or declarations come within the scope of the statute as to their nature. They were categorical, detailed and plenary. They amply support the finding of the single justice to the effect that the respondent. "corruptly influenced three jurymen who sat in" a specified case tried in the Superior Court "and was thereby guilty of gross misconduct." It is not necessary to recite them at length. They plainly implicated the respondent in the act of influencing the conduct of the three jurymen by the payment of money. They were made under circumstances which rendered them admissible.
one is returned. See Hill v. Butler County, 195 Mo. 511. Whether the information collected by the inquiry would result in the formulation of charges or in the making of a recommendation for disbarment could not be predicted but must depend upon the evidence elucidated. In any event proceedings for disbarment would be instituted subsequently to the filing of a report by the commissioner and would be an entirely separate and distinct procedure from the preliminary investigation. People v. Culkin, 248 N. Y. 465.
It follows from what has been said that the present action or proceeding did not begin when the commissioner began taking evidence touching the conduct of the respondent. That inquiry was still preliminary in nature. Much remained to be done before the situation would be ripe for the institution of disbarment proceedings.
The result is that the declarations or statements of the deceased juryman were made before the commencement of the present action, and were rightly admitted in evidence.
4. The respondent has argued that he has been deprived of practising law by proceedings not complying with due process of law. No request for ruling was presented on this point. We do not think it is open to him on this record. If, however, the point be regarded as open, it is without merit in our opinion. He has been fully heard upon every issue. The procedure has been according to established practice. Painstaking consideration has been given to all his arguments. The conclusion has been reached by legal proceedings established by our jurisprudence regulating the disbarment of unworthy members of the bar, for the protection of the public welfare, for the enforcement of the duty and obligation of the court and for the protection of the rights of the respondent. Randall, petitioner, 11 Allen 473. Boston Bar Association v. Greenhood, 168 Mass. 169. Boston Bar Association v. Casey, 211 Mass. 187. Matter of Sleeper, 251 Mass. 6. Matter of Ulmer, 268 Mass. 373.

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