Opinion ID: 2162559
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Second: Was respondent guilty of contempt for failure to move for leave to withdraw?

Text: Division 3 repeated what became on appeal a new charge against the respondent; that he did not ask leave of Judge Smith to withdraw from representation of Mr. Sandefur (9 Mich App at 344, 346). This is a question no one raised in circuit and is simply more afterwisdom acquired of Anders. Not having been charged against Mr. Hoffman, in circuit, as a contemptuous act or omission, the allegation was not reviewable by Division 3 and is not before this Court now. We take it up nonetheless since the response in any event must be the same. Judge Smith did not require or call upon Mr. Hoffman for a motion for leave to withdraw. The judge instead appointed substitute counsel and did so some weeks prior to instituting this proceeding by order to show cause. His first order effected a proper substitution of counsel, obviated need for presentation and consideration of a motion for leave to withdraw, released the respondent Hoffman from further duty as previously appointed counsel, and provided as we have seen expeditious if vain appellate proceedings on behalf of Mr. Sandefur. It is not open to question, this whole record considered, that Judge Smith wanted to pose and decide for appellate review just one issue, that is, duty of appointed counsel to appeal on grounds assigned by the indigent defendant no matter the sophistry or frivolity thereof. The judge's opinions, quoted infra, make that clear. So do the introductory paragraphs of his opinion finding Mr. Hoffman guilty of contempt: The circuit court for the county of Allegan, on its own motion, required Leo W. Hoffman, a duly licensed attorney at law, to appear before the court to show cause why he should not be adjudged guilty of contempt for failure to take the necessary legal steps to bring the matter of the People v. Ernest B. Sandefur, No. 4068, Allegan county circuit court, before the Michigan Court of Appeals. Ernest B. Sandefur had been adjudged guilty of second-degree murder by this court and sentenced to a term in prison. After a lapse of several years, Sandefur petitioned the court for legal counsel to enable him to have his case reviewed. On May 27, 1965, the court appointed Mr. Hoffman to represent Sandefur pursuant to GCR 1963, 785, and article 1, § 20, Michigan Constitution 1963. Thereafter Mr. Hoffman reviewed the file and record in the Sandefur case and reported to the court in writing his professional opinion that Mr. Sandefur had no just grounds on which to appeal. Mr. Hoffman's report to the court contained a refusal to proceed to take the necessary steps for an appeal. Thereupon the court appointed substitute counsel to represent Sandefur. To Summarize: 1. Refer back to the introductory paragraphs of this opinion. They show that local law is properly determinative of the issue made in circuit. They show also the inapposite character of each of the cases Justice T.M. KAVANAGH has cited under heading We are not without a pragmatic guide implementing the decision in Anders: ( post 100), in that no one of them challenges or decides the asserted power of a State trial judge to find an attorney guilty of contempt for having refused after appointment to proceed with an indigent's demand for appeal on grounds which the judge and the attorney both know are frivolous. 2. As for the trial judge's reference to former and now extinct [7] Rule 785.4(2) (373 Mich xvi, xvii, xviii), it need only be said that that rule merely required the appointment of counsel for indigent convicts to prepare delayed motions for postconviction proceedings in the trial court and to prepare an application for leave to take delayed appeal. It did not undertake, nor has this Court ever undertaken, to require appointed counsel to proceed on frivolous grounds once those grounds have been ascertained to be such, as in this case. The judgments of the circuit court and Court of Appeals are reversed. An order acquitting the respondent of contempt, as charged in the circuit court, will enter there.