Opinion ID: 1358696
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Violation of Suspension Order of December 19, 1968

Text: Petitioner failed to pay his annual membership fee under the State Bar Act for the calendar year 1968. On December 19, 1968, he was suspended from the practice of law by order of this court until all fees and penalties were paid. As hereinabove indicated, petitioner eventually paid all delinquent fees and penalties on May 12, 1971, and he was reinstated at that time. About June 1969, just before he was to enter active military service, petitioner filed a divorce action in the Superior Court of Los Angeles County in Goodkin v. Goodkin; and he appeared on behalf of the plaintiff at an order to show cause hearing on June 12, 1969. Opposing counsel raised the question of petitioner's status as an attorney, but petitioner claimed that he had not been suspended, as he had received no notification thereof. The judge presiding permitted petitioner to appear. Following the hearing, petitioner contacted the Los Angeles office of the State Bar and learned that he had been suspended. Because of the suspension, and also because he was going into active military service, he then withdrew from the case, and another attorney was substituted. Before an order is made by this court suspending a member for nonpayment of State Bar dues under section 6143 of the Business and Professions Code, the State Bar's San Francisco office sends three communications by mail to the attorney. The statutory notice required by section 6143 is sent by registered or certified mail. (3) In petitioner's case, proof of service was filed showing that on December 31, 1968, a copy of this court's order of December 19, 1968, was served on petitioner by mail. The address to which the communication was sent was that shown on the roll of attorneys, i.e., 241 South Beverly Drive, Beverly Hills, California 90212. Petitioner continually testified that he had moved only once in Beverly Hills and that the move was from 315 South Beverly Drive to 222 South Beverly Drive. He denied repeatedly that he had ever had an office at 241 South Beverly Drive. He admitted vaguely receiving some type of notice, but said he did not relate it to the 1968 dues. Finally, when shown a letter written by him to the State Bar dated September 18, 1969, on his letterhead, which showed his address as 241 South Beverly Drive, he testified that unquestionably that was his correct address in December 1968; but he said that he still did not recall receiving a notice of suspension. There was a presumption that petitioner received the notice in the ordinary course of mail. (Evid. Code, § 641.) As the presumption is one affecting the burden of producing evidence, petitioner's testimony denying receipt rebutted the presumption. The trier of fact, however, is permitted to draw any inferences that may be appropriate. (Evid. Code, § 604.) Here, petitioner's stated reason for non-receipt of the notice, that is, that he had never had an office at 241 South Beverly Drive, was shown to be false; and he admitted that he had received other mail sent to him by the State Bar during the relevant period, as he had been defending another attorney in a State Bar proceeding and had much correspondence with the State Bar with respect thereto. That mail was sent to petitioner at 241 South Beverly Drive. Furthermore, petitioner had no employees and very little law practice at that time and cannot claim that he failed to receive personal knowledge because of a busy law office or by delegation of dues payments to a subordinate. Although petitioner was required to do a great deal of traveling in connection with his business activities, the time lapse between the normal receipt of the notice through the mail and the questioned activities in the Goodkin matter was almost six months. Hence, even if petitioner had been absent temporarily on trips, there was ample time for him to have received the notice. Petitioner at one point at the hearing admitted that he had received a notice as to his being late in the payment of his State Bar dues, but said it was for either 1967 or 1968. The trial committee, which had the opportunity of seeing and hearing petitioner as a witness, found that he had received a notice of suspension; and weight should be given to its determination. ( Himmel v. State Bar, 4 Cal.3d 786, 794 (4) [94 Cal. Rptr. 825, 484 P.2d 993].)