Opinion ID: 1132505
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 10

Heading: Increasing Fee Because of Irritation at Counsel (Rueda)

Text: (12a) The commission found: On June 3, 1980, petitioner fixed an attorney fee of $50 for Alejandra Rueda and entered it on the probation order opposite Other, so that it appeared to be a condition of probation. Though petitioner and Deputy Public Defender Racusin, who represented Rueda, knew that payment of the fee could not be made a condition of probation, Racusin objected to notation of the fee on the probation order because his client might thereby be misled into believing the contrary. Petitioner said he had no other place to write the order except on a separate form for payment of fees through the county bureau of resources and collections, which did not then accept fee orders of less than $100 for collection. When Racusin maintained his objection, petitioner deleted the fee provision on the probation order and wrote an order for payment of a fee of $100 through the county bureau. The new order was $50 in excess of a reasonable fee. In changing the fee from $50 to $100, petitioner was motivated by irritation at what he believed was Racusin's improper participation in the fee-collecting process. Petitioner testified: When he entered the $50 attorney fee on the probation order, Racusin (1) contended there should be no fee order at all and (2) requested that any fee order be on a separate form and made payable through the county bureau rather than through the court clerk. Petitioner told him that the bureau would not accept an order for less than $100, but Racusin insisted on a separate form, so petitioner made the new order for $100. Racusin testified that when he objected to the fee order's being made an apparent condition of probation, petitioner appeared to cross something out and said it will be $100 in attorney's fees payable through the county. When Racusin asked why the fee was being doubled, petitioner said that the court never sends a collection to the county of less than $100. Petitioner's briefs justify his doubling of the fee order as a response to Racusin's insistence that it be entered on a separate form, coupled with the minimum $100 collectible through the county bureau. Yet examination of the Rueda fee order reveals that the printed form was designed for making the fee payable either through the county bureau or through the clerk of the court. Indeed, the record includes an order made just two weeks earlier, on May 20, 1980, in another case ( Rodriguez ) in which petitioner used the same printed form to order that an attorney fee of $100 be paid through the court clerk on or before June 20, 1980. With respect to the excessiveness of the $100 fee order, Rueda's financial statement, in evidence, indicates that she was employed as a maid at Safari Inn; her gross pay was $100 per week and her take-home pay $400 per month; she was single and had a three-year old daughter; her food, clothing and shelter came to $325 a month; her assets were $20 cash. Racusin testified that petitioner asked Rueda no questions about her financial condition before imposing the fee order, and that the financial statement was not filled out until after the order had already been made. In any event, it is clear that petitioner's doubling the fee was not based on any change in his information concerning the defendant's ability to pay or the legal services she had received, but was motivated by a desire to get even with the public defender for objecting to the form of the initial order. The commission concluded that [t]he act of increasing fees in the Rueda case beyond a reasonable level was wilful misconduct in office. The masters concluded that [t]he act of increasing fees in the Rueda case beyond a reasonable level from irritation at the actions of the Public Defender was conduct prejudicial. The masters declined to find wilful misconduct [b]ecause the act appears to be an isolated incident. (13) The fact that an act is an isolated incident does not preclude a determination of wilful misconduct. In fact the Rueda incident bears similarities to the Mervin Anderson incident and to other instances of overreaching, in petitioner's endeavors to enforce section 987.8 orders, that we have concluded were conduct prejudicial. The situation here is parallel to that in Gonzalez v. Commission on Judicial Performance (1983) 33 Cal.3d 359, 371 [188 Cal. Rptr. 880, 657 P.2d 372], where we said: The evidence suggests petitioner refused to hear the motion [for release on his own recognizance] because it was the public defender who had `opened his mouth' during the judge's questioning of the defendant. Such hostile, arbitrary, and unreasonable conduct jeopardizes the liberty of an indigent defendant for reasons not related to the merits of the case and therefore constitutes wilful misconduct. [Citation.] Though petitioner's conduct here jeopardized defendant Rueda's property rather than her liberty, his bad faith is exacerbated by his clinging to the excuse that the printed separate form of order could not be used for ordering payment of fees through the court clerk. The exhibits demonstrate the patent falsity of that excuse. (12b) We conclude that petitioner's act of doubling the fees in Rueda because of irritation at the deputy public defender's objections was wilful misconduct.