Title: The Florida Bar v. Langston
Citation: 540 So. 2d 118
Docket Number: 67261
State: Florida
Issuer: Florida Supreme Court
Date: March 16, 1989

540 So. 2d 118 (1989)
THE FLORIDA BAR, Complainant,
v.
William Fenton LANGSTON, Respondent.
No. 67261.

Supreme Court of Florida.
March 16, 1989.
John F. Harkness, Jr., Executive Director, John T. Berry, Staff Counsel and James N. Watson, Jr., Bar Counsel, Tallahassee, for complainant.
Charles R. Gardner of Gardner, Shelfer &amp; Duggar, P.A., Tallahassee, for respondent.
PER CURIAM.
This Florida Bar disciplinary proceeding is before the Court for consideration of the findings and recommendations of the referee's report. The Florida Bar has filed a petition for review. We have jurisdiction, article V, section 15 of the Florida Constitution, and consider the case pursuant to rule 3-7.6 of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar.[1]
The referee's report reads in pertinent part:
The Florida Bar challenges the referee's findings of not guilty on II. B.2 and 3 and the recommended discipline. Concerning II. B.2, we are satisfied that there is evidence to support the referee's conclusion that the financial statement was not intended to mislead the bank. Moreover, there is evidence indicating that respondent supplemented the financial statement with additional information and that the bank was not misled. We approve the referee's finding on this point. The Fla. Bar v. Stalnaker, 485 So. 2d 815, 816 (Fla. 1986).
The referee's recommended finding of not guilty concerning the charge arising from respondent's contempt of court during his dissolution proceeding stands on a different footing. It is uncontroverted that respondent was held in contempt and was jailed for a period of approximately six weeks until he purged himself. In the final judgment of dissolution and various orders pertaining to this contempt, the trial judge found, inter alia, that despite his ability to do so, respondent failed to pay temporary alimony and child support as ordered by the court and, contrary to the order of the court, had transferred title to various properties as part of "a calculated scheme to defraud his wife of alimony and to prevent an equitable distribution of property of this marriage." These and similar facts of misconduct before the court are not controverted and were accepted by the referee. In our view, respondent's conduct clearly violates Florida Bar Code of Professional Responsibility, Disciplinary Rules 1-102(A)(3)-(6) and is not excused or satisfactorily explained by virtue of arising in an acrimonious dissolution proceeding where the wife was represented by able counsel. Nor are we impressed by the fact that respondent was jailed until such time as he purged himself of contempt and has not since violated the order of the court.
Based on the conclusion that respondent committed perjury, which he quickly recanted, the referee recommended that respondent be privately reprimanded with a period of probation or satisfactorily completion of the ethics portion of the Florida bar exam. Our scope of review on *121 recommendations for discipline is broader than that afforded to a referee's findings of fact. The Fla. Bar In re Inglis, 471 So. 2d 38, 41 (Fla. 1985). Moreover, we have found additional guilt involving misconduct of considerable more weight than that found by the referee. We are also advised that respondent ceased representing clients in 1974 and began developing real estate and constructing rental properties. The Bar urges that respondent be suspended from the practice of law for a period in excess of ninety days. In support, The Bar cites The Fla. Bar v. Hendrickson, 222 So. 2d 1 (Fla. 1969), where we imposed a one-year suspension for contemptuously ignoring the orders of a trial judge and section 6.22 of Florida Standards for Imposing Lawyer Sanctions (1986) which recommends suspension when a lawyer knowingly violates a court order thereby frustrating a legal proceeding. Respondent argues that the misconduct occurred more than six years ago, 1982, and, since then, respondent has begun to establish credit and rebuild his business following bankruptcy. In view of the seriousness of respondent's contemptuous conduct, which is particularly egregious for a lawyer, and the fact that he has not practiced law for approximately fourteen years, we consider it advisable, in the interest of the public, to suspend respondent from the practice of law and to impose as a condition of reinstatement that he successfully pass the ethics part of the Florida bar exam. Accordingly, we suspend respondent from the practice of law for a period of ninety-one days. Reinstatement is contingent upon successfully passing the ethics portion of the Florida bar exam. Respondent shall have thirty days to close his practice in an orderly fashion and protect the interests of his clients; the suspension shall take effect April 17, 1989. As provided by rule 3-5.1(h) of the Rules Regulating The Florida Bar, respondent shall provide notice of his suspension to his clients and shall accept no new clients from the date of this order until reinstated.
The costs of these proceedings are taxed against respondent and judgment is entered in the amount of $963.80, for which sum let execution issue.
It is so ordered.
EHRLICH, C.J., and OVERTON, McDONALD, SHAW, BARKETT, GRIMES and KOGAN, JJ., concur.
[1]  The Florida Bar's complaint and referee's report were based on the former Integration Rule and Florida Bar Code of Professional Responsibility.