Case Name: MISSISSIPPI STATE BAR v. Rubel L. PHILLIPS
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1980-04-02
Citations: 385 So. 2d 943
Docket Number: Misc. No. 778
Parties: MISSISSIPPI STATE BAR v. Rubel L. PHILLIPS.
Judges: PATTERSON, C. J., SMITH, P. J., and SUGG, WALKER and BROOM, JJ., concur.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 385
Pages: 943–951

Head Matter:
MISSISSIPPI STATE BAR v. Rubel L. PHILLIPS.
Misc. No. 778.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
April 2, 1980.
On Application to Modify Previous Opinion May 14, 1980.
Jimmy L. Miller, Jackson, for appellant.
Butler, Snow, O’Mara, Stevens & Canna-da, Robert C. Cannada, Alan W. Perry, Heidelberg, Woodliff & Franks, George F. Woodliff, Jackson, for appellee.

Opinion:
LEE, Justice, for the Court:
Rubel L. Phillips [Phillips] was convicted of a felony [nine (9) counts] in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, and judgment was entered therein on March 11, 1977. A certified copy of the judgment was received by the Mississippi State Bar [The Bar] and, pursuant to Mississippi Code Annotated Section 73-3-339 (Supp.1979), he was suspended from the practice of law, pending appeal and final disposition of disciplinary proceedings. The judgment of the U. S. District Court was affirmed by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on February 2, 1978, U. S. v. Stirling, 571 F.2d 709, and certiorari to the United States Supreme Court was denied, 439 U.S. 824, 99 S.Ct. 93, 58 L.Ed.2d 116. Subsequently, a Complaint Tribunal of The Bar was organized, an evi-dentiary hearing was held, and on September 4, 1979, an order was entered by the Complaint Tribunal suspending Phillips from the practice of law for a period of three (3) years and six (6) months from and after April 20,1977, suspending one (1) year of the suspension due to his incarceration, and providing that the suspension terminate October 20, 1979. The Bar appeals from that order.
The question presented before this Court is whether or not Phillips should be disbarred, rather than suspended.
Phillips was indicted and convicted, along with four (4) other individuals, on nine (9) counts of deceiving, and conspiring to defraud the United States Government. He was sentenced on each of Counts (1) through (8) to ten (10) months imprisonment, the sentences running concurrently with each other, and was fined five thousand dollars ($5,000), on each of said counts, also to run concurrently. Imposition of sentence as to Count (9) was suspended. Phillips was also placed on probation for a period of one (1) year to commence upon release from confinement.
The Bar offered in evidence a stipulation of the parties and rested. The stipulation included copies of the indictment, judgment of the U. S. District Court, charge of the court to the jury, Phillips' brief in support of his motion for a new trial filed in the U. S. District Court, brief of the United States Government filed in response to Phillips' motion for a new trial, briefs by Phillips and the United States Government in the appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, and a statement that the judgment of the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York was affirmed by the U. S. District Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and that the Supreme Court of the United States denied Phillips' Petition for Writ of Certiorari. Evidence for Phillips was addressed to an explanation of the facts in connection with his conviction and was in mitigation thereof.
The parties discuss in their briefs Mississippi Code Annotated Sections 73-3-41 and 73-3-53 (1972), both sections being carried forward from Hutchinson's Code of 1848. The first section provides that in the event any person (attorney) has been or should thereafter be convicted of a felony, manslaughter excepted, the court in which he had been convicted shall enter an order disbarring such convict. The second section provides that, if any lawyer is guilty of any deceit or malpractice or misbehavior or shall wilfully violate his duties, he shall be stricken from the roll and disbarred. The Bar argues that the statutes apply and, in themselves, require the disbarment of Phillips, while Phillips contends to the contrary. It is not necessary for us to discuss those statutes, since we hold that, in the present case, Mississippi Code Annotated Section 73-3-301 et seq. (Supp.1979) followed by the tribunal, apply here.
Phillips contends that the Complaint Tribunal has discretion in arriving at, and entering, its judgment and that the same may not be set aside or changed unless the tribunal has acted arbitrarily and capriciously. He cites Mississippi Code Annotated Section 73-3-327 (Supp.1979), which sets forth:
"At the conclusion of the hearing the complaint tribunal, upon the majority vote of the members of such tribunal, shall render a written opinion incorporating a finding of fact and a judgment thereon. The judgment of the complaint tribunal may provide the following:
(a) Exonerate the accused attorney and dismiss the complaint.
(b) Reprimand and admonish the attorney, as provided in section 73-3-319(b) of this act.
(c) Suspend the attorney from the practice of law for any period of time.
(d) Permanently disbar the attorney."
Attorneys admitted, or permitted, to practice law in this state are subject to the exclusive and inherent disciplinary jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of Mississippi. Disciplinary agencies such as the Complaint Tribunals appointed by the Supreme Court are established and designated to implement and carry out such disciplinary action.
Mississippi Code Annotated Section 73-3-329 (Supp.1979) provides that either party may appeal from an order of the Complaint Tribunal. On appeal, the following subsections are significant:
"(4) The record on appeal shall consist of the formal complaint, all other pleadings, the transcript of the testimony and the written opinion and judgment of the complaint tribunal.
(5) On appeal, the court may review ail of the evidence and the law and the findings and conclusions of the complaint tribunal and it may make such findings and conclusions and render such order as it may find to be appropriate based upon the whole record." (Emphasis added)
In Mississippi State Bar Association v. Wade, 250 Miss. 625, 167 So.2d 648 (1964), the Court had before it the petition of Wade for reinstatement, after having been disbarred from the practice of law. Sections 8714, 8715, and 8716, Mississippi Code Annotated (1942) provided the procedures. Section 8715 was carried forward in identical language to Mississippi Code Annotated Section 73-3-155 (1972), which was repealed by Ch. 566, § 29 [1974] Miss. Gen. Laws 808, at 821.
The above sections provided that, in matters of disbarment and reinstatement to practice law, the Supreme Court shall consider the evidence in the case as disclosed by the record and such other evidence as it may deem necessary for the administration of justice, and shall decide all questions of law and fact, and render final judgment as to the disbarment, suspension and/or reinstatement, as the case may be. The sections further provided:
"The rule that the supreme court will not reverse the judgment of the lower court on a question of fact unless it affirmatively appears upon the face of the record that the cause was decided contrary to the evidence shall not apply in cases arising under this article, but the supreme court shall be the final judge of the facts, and the judgment to be rendered thereon." Miss.Code Ann. § 73-3-155 (1972).
However, under the then procedure for disbarring attorneys, the Board of Bar Commissioners, when proof was presented to it indicating an attorney had violated the rules of conduct, instituted disciplinary proceedings in the circuit or chancery court of the county in which the accused resided. The complaint was then heard and acted upon by the court. Under present procedure, the complaint is heard by a Complaint Tribunal and the appeal is direct to the Supreme Court. In Wade, the Court said:
"At the outset, 'The rule that the Supreme Court will not reverse the judgment of the lower court on a question of fact unless it affirmatively appears upon the face of the record that the cause was decided contrary to the evidence shall not apply in cases arising under this act, but the Supreme Court shall be the final judge of the facts, and the judgment to be rendered thereon,' . . . " 250 Miss, at 628-29, 167 So.2d at 649.
We think that subsection (5), Mississippi Code Annotated Section 73-3-329 (Supp.1979), is no less plain than the statutes of the Mississippi Code of 1942 and 1972 and that the section does not diminish the inherent power of the Mississippi Supreme Court in such matters, but, rather, enhances it. We are of the opinion that the rule applicable to administrative agencies to the effect their orders must be affirmed unless (1) they are arbitrary and capricious, and (2) are not supported by substantial evidence, and the rule that, as in chancery court, the chancellor will not be reversed on the facts, unless he is manifestly wrong, do not apply in the case sub judice and to the question here. We hold that, on appeal, this Court reviews the evidence, the law, the findings and conclusions of the Complaint Tribunal, and then renders such order as the Court may find to be appropriate, based upon the entire record.
The indictment, conviction and sentence of Phillips in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and affirmance of the judgment by every appellate court through the United States Supreme Court, are confessed. We are bound to give full faith and credit to judgments of our sister states and the federal system, even to the recitation of facts in decisions of their appellate courts. In United States v. Stirling et al., 571 F.2d 708 (2d Cir. 1978) (Rubel Phillips appeal), the Second Circuit Court of Appeals said:
"In late 1970, appellant Rubel Phillips, a Mississippi attorney, helped organize on Homex's behalf a group of Mississippi citizens into a non-profit public benefit corporation that would be eligible for federal, state and local financing of housing projects. The corporation was called the Greater Gulf Coast Housing Development Corporation ('Greater Gulf'). In December, 1970, Greater Gulf and Homex entered into two agreements. The first for $100 million, called for the construction of a 5,000-unit housing project over a 6-year period, and was conditioned upon the modules being constructed in a Mississippi factory. The second, for $15 million, called for the construction of an 800-unit modular housing project over an 18-month period. These agreements, however, were effectively worthless unless and until Greater Gulf was successful in obtaining a funding commitment from appropriate government agencies.
‡ # s(t $ $ }fc
Appellant Phillips, the central figure in the Mississippi Greater Gulf scheme, argues that the district court erred by refusing to grant his mid-trial Rule 14 motion to sever his trial from that of the other defendants. Essentially, he claims that the indictment charged, and the evidence showed, multiple conspiracies rather than a single conspiracy; that he was, at most, involved in only one of those conspiracies; and that the forced combination of his trial with that of the others operated to his substantial prejudice. We disagree.
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Phillips was charged with playing a significant and knowing role in the advancement of the objective of the conspiracy. Although he was not charged with having participated in every detail of that conspiracy, we have no doubt that he was properly tried with the other conspirators. He played the key role in orchestrating the most blatant misrepresentation in the entire Homex drama, the Greater Gulf project. The public interest in avoiding unnecessarily multiplicious litigation was well-served by the district court's decision. We hold that Phillips was not prejudiced by the denial of the motion nor was its denial an abuse of discretion." 571 F.2d at 719-20, 732, 733.
Mississippi Code Annotated Section 73-3-339 (Supp.1979) provides that a certified copy of the final judgment of conviction of an attorney in a state court or federal court of any felony (other than manslaughter or any violation of the United States Internal Revenue Code), or of any offenses involving fraud, dishonesty, misrepresentation, deceit, failure to account for money or property of a client, or of any offense involving moral turpitude, shall be conclusive evidence of his guilt of that offense in any disciplinary proceeding instituted against him and based on such conviction.
The law is the greatest single force in society. Members of the law profession, which includes judges and attorneys, have a high responsibility and an important duty to maintain inviolate those standards of conduct without which the profession cannot survive. Unethical activities on the part of some members of the law profession breed public disrespect for it, the members thereof, and the law. Discipline is essential and, thus, the reason for the recognition that the Supreme Court of Mississippi has inherent power to see that appropriate discipline is administered after a proper complaint. We hold that, on the complaint sub judice where Phillips was convicted in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, on nine (9) felony counts, involving moral turpitude, appropriate discipline should be, and is, disbarment.
Therefore, the order of the Complaint Tribunal is vacated and judgment is entered here disbarring Rubel L. Phillips from the practice of law in the State of Mississippi.
ORDER OP COMPLAINT TRIBUNAL VACATED AND JUDGMENT ENTERED HERE.
PATTERSON, C. J., SMITH, P. J., and SUGG, WALKER and BROOM, JJ., concur.
ROBERTSON, P. J., and BOWLING and COFER, JJ., dissent.
. Mississippi Code Annotated Sections 73 3-301 and 73-3 303 (Supp.1979).