Case Name: Jose CLAUSELL, Petitioner, v. The STATE of Florida, Respondent
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1984-03-13
Citations: 455 So. 2d 1050
Docket Number: No. 83-2522
Parties: Jose CLAUSELL, Petitioner, v. The STATE of Florida, Respondent.
Judges: Before HUBBART, NESBITT and DANIEL S. PEARSON, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 455
Pages: 1050–1057

Head Matter:
Jose CLAUSELL, Petitioner, v. The STATE of Florida, Respondent.
No. 83-2522.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
March 13, 1984.
On Motion for Rehearing En Banc Sept. 18, 1984.
Pelzner, Schwedock, Finkelstein & Klausner and Robert D. Klausner and Lori E. Barrist, Miami, for petitioner.
Jim Smith, Atty. Gen., and Michael J. Neimand, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondent.
Before HUBBART, NESBITT and DANIEL S. PEARSON, JJ.

Opinion:
DANIEL S. PEARSON, Judge.
By this petition for writ of certiorari, Jose Clausell asks us to quash an order of the trial court which refused to disqualify the office of the State Attorney from further participation in the prosecution of Clausell for perjury. Clausell contends that because two Assistant State Attorneys will be witnesses for the prosecution, all other members of the State Attorney's office are disqualified from prosecuting him, and such task must necessarily be assigned to a special prosecutor who has no affiliation with the State Attorney's office for the Eleventh Judicial Circuit.
Clausell is being prosecuted for perjury in violation of Section 837.02, Florida Statutes (1981). The information alleges that Clausell made material false statements under oath during an official proceeding to one Jonathan Blecher, an Assistant State Attorney. The names of Blecher and Anne Marie Farrar, another Assistant State Attorney before whom Clausell apparently retracted the earlier statements given to Blecher, appear on the State's list of prospective witnesses. The Assistant State Attorney now assigned to prosecute the case is, of course, neither Blecher nor Far-rar.
It is clear, and Clausell does not contend otherwise, that there is nothing condemnable about a member of the prosecutor's office who is not prosecuting the case testifying as a prosecution witness. Without exception, courts have, explicitly and implicitly, rejected the contention that because of the prestige which attaches to the prosecutor's office, to permit a prosecutor to testify would unfairly prejudice the defendant. United States v. Cerone, 452 F.2d 274 (7th Cir.1971), cert. denied, 405 U.S. 964, 92 S.Ct. 1168, 31 L.Ed.2d 240 (1972) (explicitly rejecting contention that United States Attorney, who was not prosecuting the case, should not have been allowed to testify because it was prejudicial to the defendants due to the prestige of witness's office); United States v. Callanan, 450 F.2d 145 (4th Cir.1971) (same); People v. Mann, 27 I11.2d 135, 188 N.E.2d 665, cert. denied, 374 U.S. 855, 83 S.Ct. 1923, 10 L.Ed.2d 1075 (1963) (same, implicit); Lukas v. State, 194 Wis. 387, 216 N.W. 483 (1927) (same, implicit). Clausell suggests, however, that this otherwise admissible testimony cannot be elicited by any other Assistant State Attorney from the same office as the witnesses. Since, as we have said, there is no cognizable prejudice to the defendant from the fact of these Assistant State Attorneys testifying, in order to prevail on his motion to disqualify all other members of the State Attorney's office, the defendant must point to some prejudice to him which results from the office's participation in his prosecution. See United States v. Hubbard, 493 F.Supp. 206 (D.D.C.1979), affirmed sub nom. United States v. Heldt, 668 F.2d 1238 (D.C.Cir. 1981), cert. denied sub nom. Hubbard v. United States, 456 U.S. 926,102 S.Ct. 1971, 72 L.Ed.2d 440 (1982). The defendant has pointed to none.
We reject Clausell's argument that it is unnecessary for him to show prejudice and that he is entitled to have the State Attorney's office disqualified because its further participation in his prosecution would constitute a breach of the Florida Bar Code of Professional Responsibility. His thesis is that the office of the State Attorney is a law firm, and every assistant within the office is a lawyer in the firm, so as to require the automatic disqualification of the firm when, as here, any of its members are to be witnesses in a case being prosecuted by the firm.
First, without any showing that a prosecutor's violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility will or has prejudiced him, a defendant has no right to enforce the Code and is not intended to be an incidental beneficiary of any violation of its provisions. See State v. Murray, 443 So.2d 955 (Fla.1984) (prosecutorial misconduct in violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility is the proper subject of bar disciplinary action and will not warrant reversal of a conviction unless the misconduct can be said to have prejudiced the defendant's right to a fair trial); State v. Del Gaudio, 445 So.2d 605 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984) (sanction of dismissal of charges for prosecutor's misconduct in failing to make discovery inappropriate in absence of irreparable prejudice to defendant). Cf. Molina v. State, 447 So.2d 253 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983) (where prosecutorial misconduct prejudiced defendant, conviction reversed and matters of misconduct referred to the bar for grievance proceedings).
We do not overlook this court's recent decision in Rodriguez v. State, 433 So.2d 1273 (Fla. 3d DCA 1983). There the court, reversing the defendant's conviction, held that "the State's presentation of the testimony of a member of its office to give an expert opinion as to whether the alibi witness could be prosecuted constituted error." 433 So.2d at 1275. Since, as we have said, it is clear that in the absence of prejudice to the defendant, a prosecutor's violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility is not a ground for reversal, see State v. Murray, 443 So.2d 955, Rodriguez can only be read to mean that the testimony presented was inadmissible and prejudicial to the defendant without regard to whether it was presented by a member of the State Attorney's office or a person appointed in the stead of the State Attorney. Therefore, the ensuing discussion in Rodriguez concerning the impropriety of the prosecuting attorney calling a member of his own office as a witness is dicta which we are free to disregard.
Second, we perceive no violation of the Code of Professional Responsibility when an Assistant State Attorney appears as a witness for the State in a case being prosecuted by another member of the State Attorney's office.
Concededly, the Code of Professional Responsibility mandates that "[a] lawyer shall not accept employment in contemplated or pending litigation if he knows or it is obvious that . a lawyer in his firm ought to be called as a witness." Fla.Bar Code Prof.Resp. D.R. 5-101(B). The Code provides that, under like circumstances, the lawyer's law firm shall not continue with the representation. Fla.Bar Code Prof. Resp.D.R. 5-102(A).
In our view, the State Attorney's office is not a law firm, and an Assistant State Attorney is not a lawyer in the firm for the purposes of D.R. 5-101(B) and D.R. 5-102(A). These sections, as do other sections in the Code of Professional Responsibility, clearly indicate that these expressions were intended to refer to law firms undertaking employment for remuneration and to the attorneys in such firms. For example, D.R. 2-110(A)(3) requires that a withdrawing attorney refund unearned fees; D.R. 2-102 is a regulatory provision concerning the use of the term "firm" in professional settings; D.R. 3-102 regulates the sharing of legal fees and payment of the same to non-lawyers; and D.R. 9-102(A)(2) regulates the use of clients' funds. The definitional section merely states that a law firm "includes a professional legal corporation." We believe that had it been intended that "law firm" should include a multi-assistant State Attorney's office, that inclusion would have been clearly expressed. People ex rel. Younger v. Superior Court, 86 Cal.App.3d 180, 150 Cal.Rptr. 156 (4th Dist.1978).
That the word "firm" as used in D.R. 5-101(B) and D.R. 5-102(A) was intended to refer to a law firm engaged in practice for remuneration is further apparent from Formal Opinion 339 of the American Bar Association's Committee on Ethics and Professional Responsibility (January 31, 1975). In respect to the requirement that a "firm" and all lawyers in the firm withdraw when a lawyer in the firm intends to testify on behalf of the client, Formal Opinion 339 concludes:
"Because a trial advocate clearly possesses such [a financial] interest, his testimony, or that of a lawyer in his firm, is properly subject to inquiry based on such interest, perhaps including elements of his fee arrangement in some instances. Thus, the weight and credibility of testimony needed by the client may be discounted and in some cases the effect will be detrimental to the client's cause."
See also E.C. 5-9.
Thus, faced with the identical question which is now before us, the court in People ex rel. Younger v. Superior Court, 86 Cal.App.3d 180, 150 Cal.Rptr. 156, after a thorough review of California's Code of Professional Responsibility, which in all material respects is the same as Florida's Code, concluded:
"The reasons advanced in support of rule 2-lll(A)(4) [Fla.D.R. 5-101(B) and D.R. 5-102(A)] and the authoritative discussions of the rule and its reasons previously cited . reveal that the balance thus drawn is based on certain fundamental assumptions: that there are available a number of competent, qualified attorneys who are unrelated to the attorney-witness and who are willing to undertake the client's case .; that, consequently, the interest of the client in representation by the attorney of choice implicates primarily avoidance of inconvenience and duplicative expense .; that the attorney's interest in continuing to represent the client is mostly or wholly financial in nature .; that a trial advocate has or appears to have an interest in the outcome of the case, either financial as a result of his fee arrangement or expectation of representing the client in the future, or a partisan interest resulting from his zeal as an advocate ., and that an attorney-witness whose law firm represents the client at trial will or will be presumed to continue to have an interest in the outcome of the case, either financial as a result of the fee arrangements and arrangement for his compensation by the firm, or secondarily perhaps, some residual partisanship resulting from his relationship with the law firm notwithstanding he is not acting as the advocate personally . However valid these assumptions may be in the case of an attorney or law firm engaged in practice for remuneration and the normal attorney-client relationship, they have virtually no validity in the case of the multi-deputy prose-cutorial office of a district attorney. The prosecutorial office of an elected district attorney and the relationship between the district attorney and his sole client, the People, are fundamentally and decisively different from a law firm and the ordinary attorney-client relationship."
86 Cal.App.3d at 203-04, 150 Cal.Rptr. 156 (citations omitted) (emphasis supplied).
Similarly, in United States v. Hubbard, 493 F.Supp. at 208, the court stated:
"If any member of a law firm has an interest in the outcome of a case, the entire firm is disqualified. See ABA Opinion 296 (1959). However, this rule does not extend to encompass an Office of a United States Attorney. A United States Attorney's Office is unique in that it does not represent ordinary parties but the sovereign whose obligation is to govern impartially. See Berger v. United States, 295 U.S. 78, 88, 55 S.Ct. 629 [633], 79 L.Ed. 1314 (1934). Furthermore, the members of an Office of a United States Attorney have no interest in the success of the litigation of their associates as do members of a private firm. Therefore, the fact that one member of the Office may have a disqualifying interest in the case does not preclude the entire Office from handling the case."
This fundamental and decisive difference between the public prosecutor and the ordinary advocate is expressly recognized by the Code of Professional Responsibility, see E.C. 7-13; D.R. 7-103; by the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, see Rule 3.8, Special Responsibilities of A Prosecutor; and has long been recognized by our case law, see Smith v. State, 95 So.2d 525 (Fla.1957); Peterson v. State, 376 So.2d 1230 (Fla. 4th DCA 1979), cert. denied, 386 So.2d 642 (1980); Frazier v. State, 294 So.2d 691 (Fla. 1st DCA 1974), cert. denied, 307 So.2d 185 (1975).
Nor does the decision of our sister court in Fitzpatrick v. Smith, 432 So.2d 89 (Fla. 5th DCA 1983), alter our view. In Fitzpatrick, the defendant's motion to disqualify the State Attorney's office was based on the fact that the defendant had consulted with an attorney, one Kimball, concerning the charges against him, and subsequently, while the charges were still pending against the defendant, Kimball became an Assistant State Attorney in the office whose responsibility it was to prosecute the defendant. The defendant claimed that the threat of disclosure of his privileged and confidential communications to Kimball was sufficient grounds to disqualify the State Attorney's office. The Fifth District Court of Appeal, finding a real danger of prejudice to the defense, agreed. In so deciding, the court, relying upon cases holding that a public defender's office is a law firm within the meaning of the Code of Professional Responsibility, determined that a State Attorney's office is a firm.
It is obvious that whether the State Attorney's office may be considered a law firm for the purpose of disqualifying its members when one of its number has previously represented the defendant in the very matter being prosecuted is irrelevant to the question of whether the State Attorney's office may be considered a law firm under D.R. 5-101(B) and D.R. 5-102(A) for the purpose of disqualifying its members when one of its number is to testify as a witness for the State. The rationale of Fitzpatrick is the real danger of prejudice to the defendant posed by the possible divulgence of privileged information and, implicitly, the unseemliness of the defendant being prosecuted by an office on a charge he had discussed with his former attorney, now a member of that office. No such prejudice or unseemliness exists here.
We therefore conclude that the trial court did not depart from the essential requirements of the law — indeed, adhered to those requirements — when it denied the petitioner's motion to disqualify the State Attorney's office from further participation in the prosecution of the petitioner. The trial court's decision was eminently correct in that the petitioner failed to show that he would be prejudiced by the State Attorney's office's continued participation in the prosecution. The petitioner's reliance on Disciplinary Rules 5-101(B) and 5-102(A) of the Florida Bar Code of Professional Responsibility as grounds for disqualification is misplaced, since, absent a showing that a violation of these rules will prejudice him the petitioner has no private right to seek their enforcement, and, moreover, the State Attorney's office is not a law firm within the meaning of the cited rules.
Accordingly, the petition for writ of cer-tiorari is
Denied.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and BARK-DULL, HUBBART, NESBITT, BASKIN, DANIEL S. PEARSON, FERGUSON and JORGENSON, JJ.
. On the other hand, but inapposite here, where the person actually prosecuting the case appears as a witness in the case, courts have uniformly condemned the practice on the theory that in such an instance, "a jury is naturally apt to give to the testimony of the prosecuting attorney himself much more weight than it would accord to the ordinary witness." Shargaa v. State, 102 So.2d 809, 813 (Fla.1958) (condemning practice, but affirming conviction where prosecutor's testimony was limited to a matter not in material dispute); Robinson v. State, 32 F.2d 505 (8th Cir.1929) (condemning practice and reversing on other grounds); People v. Spencer, 182 Colo. 189, 512 P.2d 260 (1973) (condemning practice and reversing conviction where prosecutor's testimony of sufficient consequence).
. In United States v. Hubbard, 493 F.Supp. 206, the court rejected the defendant's claim that the United States Attorney's Office should be disqualified where the indictment charged the de fendants with burglaries and thefts from an office of an Assistant United States Attorney in that district who was not in any way involved in the prosecution of the case. The court found that none of the government attorneys had any emotional stake in the outcome that could disturb his exercise of impartial judgment and thus deprive the defendant of a fair trial. In so doing, the court distinguished People v. Superior Court, 19 Cal.3d 255, 137 Cal.Rptr. 476, 561 P.2d 1164 (1977), where the district attorney's office was held to be properly disqualified from prosecuting a homicide where the victim's mother was a clerk in the district attorney's office and stood to gain custody of her deceased son's child upon the conviction of the defendant, the victim's wife. The California court held on the circumstances presented, "[T]he prosecutor might at least appear to have an emotional stake in the case of the sort that could disturb his exercise of impartial judgment-" 137 Cal. Rptr. at 486, 561 P.2d at 1174.
. The Model Rules of Professional Conduct adopted by the American Bar Association on August 2, 1983, make clear that violations are the concern of the violator and the appropriate disciplinary agency and do not create a procedural weapon in other litigants.
"Violation of a Rule should not give rise to a cause of action nor should it create any presumption that a legal duty has been breached. The Rules are designed to provide guidance to lawyers and to provide a structure for regulating conduct through disciplinary agencies. They are not designed to be a basis for civil liability. Furthermore, the purpose of the Rules can be subverted when they are invoked by opposing parties as procedural weapons. The fact that a Rule is a just basis for sanctioning a lawyer under the administration of a disciplinary authority, does not imply that an antagonist in a collateral proceeding or transaction has standing to seek enforcement of the Rule. Accordingly, nothing in the Rules should be deemed to augment any substantive legal duty of lawyers or the extra-disciplinary consequences of violating such a duty."
. We reiterate that in the present case, there is no contention that the testimony of the assistants is inadmissible. The contention is that such testimony should not be elicited by a member of the same office as the witness.
. These rules contain exceptions which are not pertinent here.
. The conclusion that a State Attorney's office which represents a single client is a law firm does not follow from the conclusion that a pub-lie defender's office which represents multiple clients with the potential for conflict is a law firm. In the factual context of Fitzpatrick, how ever, where there existed the spectre of divided loyalties, the problem of conflict existed.