Opinion ID: 1985253
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Fifth Amendment Due Process

Text: Slattery principally relies on In re Ruffalo, 390 U.S. 544, 88 S.Ct. 1222, 20 L.Ed.2d 117 (1968), for the argument that his Fifth Amendment due process rights were violated when Bar Counsel, without notice, allegedly changed his theory of theft from theft by trick to one of theft by conversion. Although, as explained above, we consider that this factual contention is not borne out by the language of the Specification, we also reject Slattery's due process argument grounded on Ruffalo. In Ruffalo, the charges against the attorney were amended to add a count based on a defense that the attorney had presented during his testimony. See 390 U.S. at 550, 88 S.Ct. 1222. The Supreme Court held that [t]his absence of fair notice as to the reach of the grievance procedure and the precise nature of the charges deprived petitioner of procedural due process. Id. at 552, 88 S.Ct. 1222. Ruffalo, an Ohio lawyer who handled a number of Federal Employer's Liability Act (FELA) cases, was charged by the bar association with a number of violations of the disciplinary rules including his use of a part-time employee named Orlando to solicit FELA clients. See id. at 546, 88 S.Ct. 1222. Ruffalo and Orlando both testified that Orlando was employed only to investigate the cases and did not solicit clients on behalf of Ruffalo. See id. During the course of the proceeding, however, it was revealed that Orlando was employed by one of the railroads against which Ruffalo had brought some of his cases. See id. The bar association thereafter added an additional charge against Ruffalo in the midst of the hearing, that Ruffalo's employment of Orlando to investigate against his employer was deceptive in nature and was morally and legally wrong. Id. at 547, 88 S.Ct. 1222. Ruffalo was given a continuance to respond to the new charge. See id. In disbarring Ruffalo, the Ohio Supreme Court concluded that one who believes that it is proper to employ and pay another to work against the interests of his regular employer is not qualified to be a member of the Ohio bar. Mahoning County Bar Ass'n v. Ruffalo, 176 Ohio St. 263, 199 N.E.2d 396, 401 (1964). The case came before the Supreme Court on appeal from a subsequent disbarment, as reciprocal discipline, by the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. See In re Ruffalo, 13 Ohio Misc. 131, 370 F.2d 447 (6th Cir.1966), rev'd, 390 U.S. 544, 88 S.Ct. 1222, 20 L.Ed.2d 117 (1968). In reversing the Sixth Circuit's decision, the Court stated: In the present case petitioner had no notice that his employment of Orlando would be considered a disbarment offense until after both he and Orlando had testified at length on all the material facts pertaining to this phase of the case. As Judge Edwards, dissenting below, said, Such procedural violation of due process would never pass muster in any normal civil or criminal litigation. These are adversary proceedings of a quasi-criminal nature. The charge must be known before the proceedings commence. They become a trap when, after they are underway, the charges are amended on the basis of testimony of the accused. He can then be given no opportunity to expunge the earlier statements and start afresh. How the charge would have been met had it been originally included in those leveled against petitioner by the Ohio Board of Commissioners on Grievances and Discipline no one knows. This absence of fair notice as to the reach of the grievance procedure and the precise nature of the charges deprived petitioner of procedural due process. Ruffalo, 390 U.S. at 550-52, 88 S.Ct. 1222 (citations and footnotes omitted). This court has had the opportunity to consider the scope of Ruffalo's holding. In In re Smith, 403 A.2d 296 (1979), the respondent was charged with violations under the former Disciplinary Rules 6-101(A)(3) (neglecting a legal matter entrusted to him), and 7-101(A)(1) & (2) (failing to seek the lawful objectives of his client or to carry out a contract for professional services). See id. at 297. The matter was referred to a Hearing Committee. See id. At the hearing, respondent, who appeared pro se, stated: [If] there's anything I've done wrong as a lawyer, it is in the using of subterfuge in getting the money for the work that I had already done for these people. Id. As a result of this and similar statements at the hearing, formal charges were filed against the respondent for violating DR 1-102(A)(4) (conduct involving dishonesty, fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation). See id. The Hearing Committee, citing Ruffalo, dismissed the charge under DR 1-102(A)(4) believing it to be barred by lack of due process. See id. The Board on Professional Responsibility reinstated the charge and found the respondent guilty. See id. at 298. The respondent in Smith urged this court to reverse the Board's holding with respect to the violation of DR 1-102(A)(4) because respondent had not been charged with fraud when he admitted to fraud. Id. at 300. We noted that [u]nder this reading of Ruffalo an attorney could immunize himself from discipline for the bulk of his professional indiscretions by confessing freely at any time after being charged with some trivial violation. Id. We did not read Ruffalo as holding that Ruffalo was denied due process because the bar association failed to give him timely notice of an additional charge of violating the disciplinary rules. Id. at 301. Rather, we understood Ruffalo as holding that due process was violated because the bar association failed to give [Ruffalo] prior notice that his conduct would amount to, in the words of the Supreme Court, a `disbarment offense,' with the consequence that Ruffalo was trapped into admitting that he had committed a disciplinary violation. Id. We were encouraged in this reading of Ruffalo by the Court's citation to Bouie v. City of Columbia, 378 U.S. 347, 84 S.Ct. 1697, 12 L.Ed.2d 894 (1964), for the proposition that Ruffalo may well have been lulled `into a false sense of security' .... Ruffalo, 390 U.S. at 551 n. 4, 88 S.Ct. 1222. In Bouie, two black students had taken seats in a section of a restaurant that was by custom reserved for white patrons only. See 378 U.S. at 348, 84 S.Ct. 1697. No signs were posted. See id. After the students had seated themselves, a restaurant employee chained off the section and posted a no trespassing sign. See id. The students were asked to leave and, when they refused, were arrested. See id. They were charged and convicted under a South Carolina statute that prohibited entry upon the land of another . . . after notice from the owner or tenant prohibiting such entry. Id. n. 1. The Supreme Court reversed, holding that the students' due process rights were violated when South Carolina applied a criminal sanction to what had been non-criminal conduct under the statute when it occurred. See id. at 355, 84 S.Ct. 1697. As we noted in Smith, the law had provided [the students] no notice that their conduct would be subject to criminal sanctions prior to their engaging in it. Smith, 403 A.2d at 301 (citing Bouie, 378 U.S. at 355, 84 S.Ct. 1697). We further cited approvingly Justice White's concurrence in Ruffalo which makes the same point quite forcefully. Id. [M]embers of a bar can be assumed to know that certain kinds of conduct, generally condemned by responsible men, will be grounds for disbarment. This class of conduct certainly includes the criminal offenses traditionally known as Malum in se. It also includes conduct which all responsible attorneys would recognize as improper for a member of the profession. Ruffalo, supra, 390 U.S. at 555, 88 S.Ct. 1222 (White, J., concurring). In holding that Smith's discipline for violating DR 1-102(A)(4) did not violate the rule of Ruffalo, we noted that [i]n the case before us, respondent admitted to fraud while testifying at a hearing on his alleged neglect. The Rules of Professional Conduct are quite clear on this point: respondent's fraudulent actions were proscribed. No newly declared standards of professional conduct were applied retroactively to respondent's actions after he had admitted to them. Smith, 403 A.2d at 302. In In re James, 452 A.2d 163 (D.C.1982), we reiterated this understanding:  Ruffalo rests on the premise that the amendment of charges created an impermissible trap since, at the time of the proceedings, the attorney could not have known that the defense he asserted would subject him to disbarment. Id. at 168 n. 3. Such a situation is not present in the case at bar. Theft, whether by trick or by conversion, is a criminal act that constitutes a violation of Rule 8.4(b). Moreover, as in James, [t]he instant case involves no amendment of charges. The issues involve the scope of the original charges and whether the Hearing Committee's statements to respondent regarding the matters of concern to them would suffice to vitiate any shortcomings in the charging document. Id. Slattery directs us to In re Thorup, 432 A.2d 1221 (D.C.1981), wherein, citing Ruffalo, we found difficulties [to] stem from the Hearing Committee's actions in amending the gravamen of the charge based on the testimony of [the] respondent. Id. at 1225. In Thorup, the respondent was found to have neglected a legal matter entrusted to him in violation of DR 6-101(A)(3). See id. at 1222. The original basis of the charge was that the court-appointed Thorup had failed to take actions to prepare a defense for his client, such as filing a motion to suppress or interviewing alibi witnesses. See id. at 1222-23. The Hearing Committee accepted a copy of the docket from the client's criminal case into evidence and ruled that the docket established a prima facie case against respondent. See id. at 1225. The docket showed only that respondent had failed to file a suppression motion and that a motion had subsequently been filed by successor counsel and granted by the trial court. See id. The Committee then switched the burden to respondent to explain his actions. See id. Before the Hearing Committee Thorup testified that he had no notes in his file and little recollection concerning the government's evidence against his client, potential witnesses or the defendant's alibi. In rejecting the Board's recommendation for a public censure, we noted that, in effect, the charge metamorphosed from failure to represent to failure to recollect and keep notes  an assumed misconduct neither charged nor founded in the Disciplinary Rules. Id. [9] Thus, Thorup can be reconciled with our interpretation of Ruffalo in Smith: Thorup was not on notice that failure to keep adequate notes violated the disciplinary rules. In sum, our analysis in Smith counsels that Slattery's due process claim under Ruffalo must fail. In the instant case, the Rules of Professional Conduct are clear that the theft of funds to which one is a fiduciary, whether that theft is accomplished by trick or misappropriation, is conduct which all responsible attorneys would recognize as improper for a member of the profession. Ruffalo, 390 U.S. at 555, 88 S.Ct. 1222. Slattery was on notice that theft, by whatever means, is a violation of the standards of professional conduct, was aware of the nature of the charges against him (theft), and therefore was not lulled into a false sense of security and, thereby, trapped. Cf. Smith, 403 A.2d at 302. Therefore, we reject Slattery's argument that his Fifth Amendment due process rights were violated by an alleged change in the legal theory of theft. [10]