Court Opinion

ID: 9757040
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:15:40.603531+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:34.340239
License: Public Domain

*584POMEROY, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. I do not agree that a judge should be able to receive his salary retroactively for a period during which he does not, albeit understandably, comply with the corresponding ethical obligations that attach to judicial office.
I have no quarrel with the general proposition that a judge, like any other holder of elective office whose oath-taking has been delayed because of an election contest, should receive the salary to which he would be entitled had there been no contest. This seems compelled both by considerations of fairness and by the statutes and cases discussed by the majority and which are unchallenged by appellant. Nor do I dispute the majority’s conclusions that by engaging in the practice of law while the contest concerning his election was pending, Judge Reed did not violate either Article V, Section 17(a) of the Pennsylvania Constitution (judges “shall not engage in the practice of law”),1 or Canon 2 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, supra note 1, 455 Pa. at xxx (“A judge should avoid impropriety and the appearance of impropriety in all his activities”). I think these conclusions are acceptable because Judge Reed was not known to be an elected judge until the contest was resolved, and could not serve as a judicial officer or, indeed, draw any judicial salary until resolution of the contest had been accomplished. See Kelly v. Herb, 147 Pa. 563, 23 A. 889 (1892).
What the majority does not take into account, however, is that this action to compel the payment of salary retroactively to the statutory commencement of the term of office is brought by a sitting judge who is subject to the Code of Judicial Conduct. And the Code, in my view, does not permit a judge to receive a judicial salary for a period of time when he performed work that was incompatible with the judicial office from which he now seeks earnings nunc pro tunc. As suggested above, the fact that there was an *585election contest imputes no blameworthiness to Judge Reed, and it would be unrealistic and harsh to demand that one in his position must, if he needs income on which to live, suddenly convert to another occupation. On the other hand, as I see it, the fact of the contest did nevertheless confront Mr. Reed with the necessity to make a choice as between his prospective judicial salary and what he might earn as a practicing lawyer during the period that the election remained in doubt. He should not be able to have it both ways, which is what the Court’s decision allows. To permit one whose entitlement to office is finally vindicated to turn his temporary disability into a permanent windfall, through the addition to the fruits of his law practice of judicial salary for the same period, presents, in my view, an “appearance of impropriety” that is clearly within the prohibition of Canon 2(A) of the Code.2 See and compare Matter of Dandridge, 462 Pa. 67, 337 A.2d 885 (1975) (retention by a judge of monies received from a testimonial dinner held to create an “appearance of impropriety”).
Kelly v. Herb, supra, relied upon by the majority, has nothing to do with the ethical question presented by this case. Kelly held only that one who had been commissioned *586as a judge but who had not yet been sworn in could properly sign a pleading he had prepared for his client. The decision was concerned altogether with the validity of that pleading in the setting of that case; it Was not concerned, as we are here, with the ethical aspects of the actions of one who is now a sitting judge, a matter which affects the integrity of the entire judicial system. Similarly, Simmons v. Tucker, 444 Pa. 160, 281 A.2d 902 (1971), was concerned only with the date on which an election was to be held to fill a judicial vacancy, not with enrichment of a judge from the combined income of incompatible positions.
The reliance of the Court on the decisions which establish the general proposition that an elected public official who assumes office after a disputed election is entitled to compensation as if he had served from the commencement of his elected term is also misplaced. Those cases speak in property law terms of “entitlement” to office, the emoluments which are “annexed” to it, and the “vesting” of rights to those emoluments.3 See cases cited in the opinion of the Court, ante at 573-575. However valid these concepts may be in most public office situations, they are wide of the mark when the office is a judicial one and the candidates are, necessarily, subject to the canons of professional and judicial ethics.4 The application of these canons to the elective process and the supervisory power of this Court over the conduct of judges and lawyers, see Pa.Const. art. V, § 10; see also, e. g., Petition of Squires & Constables Ass’n. *587of Pa., Inc., 442 Pa. 502, 275 A.2d 657 (1971), are developments with which the stilted, traditional approach to title to public office is not compatible. Thus the cases the majority cites should not be found .controlling in the case at hand.
Nor can I agree with appellee’s implicit argument that a declaration that he has forfeited his right to salary for the contest period by practicing law works a diminution of judicial salary in violation of Article V, Section 16(a) of the Pennsylvania Constitution.5 Our cases, and indeed the whole history of this and similar provisions, clearly show “that the well-established purpose of the prohibition against diminishing the compensation of the judiciary during their terms of office . . . is to maintain the independence of the judiciary from encroachment by the other branches of government.” Firing v. Kephart, 466 Pa. 560, 568, 353 A.2d 833, 837 (1976). See, e. g., Bailey v. Waters, 308 Pa. 309, 162 A. 819 (1932); The Federalist No. 79 (A. Hamilton). See also the comments of Judge Von Moschzisker, specially presiding in the Court of Common Pleas of Dauphin County, in Commonwealth ex rel. Attorney General v. Mathues, 210 Pa. 372, 401-402, 59 A. 961 (1904). No encroachment upon judicial independence by the legislature or the executive is involved in this case. Rather, it was the choice made by appellee to continue in the practice of law which disentitles him to retroactive judicial salary. And there is no doubt that this forfeiture can be declared as a matter of law by this Court by virtue of its general supervisory powers over all judges of the Commonwealth under Article V, Section 10(a) of our Constitution. See also Pa.Const. art. V, § 18(d) (Supreme Court may cause “any justice or judge” to be “disciplined for conduct which prejudices the proper administration of justice or brings the judicial office into disrepute . . . ”).
*588The importance of the integrity of the judicial office exacts various obligations from those who hold that office. Among them is the requirement that a judicial officer not practice law,6 and its corollary, that he receive no income from the practice of law. These restrictions are common to all judges in Pennsylvania. Appellee chose to remain in private practice until declared the winner of a contested judicial election, and now seeks to compel the payment of judicial salary retroactively, including this period of private practice. The appearance of impropriety created by this conduct seems to me apparent.7 It has been well said that “judges have a unique role in the polity, and community expectations about what is acceptable behavior for them are generally higher than for other public officials; even one instance of judicial misconduct may therefore have damaging consequences far out of proportion to its intrinsic moral seriousness.” Braithwaite, Who Judges the Judges? (1971), at 9. To allow Judge Reed to seek and compel retroactive pay under these circumstances, as the Court’s decision does, can only erode respect for judges and the institution of the judiciary. Hence this dissent.

. Canon 5(F) of the Code of Judicial Conduct, adopted by this Court effective January 1, 1974, 455 Pa. xxix, xlii (1973), contains the same prohibition.

. Canon 2(A) of the Code, supra note 1, 455 Pa. at xxx, provides in full:

“A Judge Should Avoid Impropriety and the Appearance of Impropriety in All His Activities

A. A judge should respect and comply with the law and should conduct himself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary. As the Commentary to this Canon explains:
Public confidence in the judiciary is eroded by irresponsible or improper conduct by judges. A judge must avoid all impropriety and appearance of impropriety. He must expect to be the subject of constant public scrutiny. He must therefore accept restrictions on his conduct that might be viewed as burdensome by the ordinary citizen and should do so freely and willingly.”
Canon 2 of the Code of Judicial Conduct has its counterpart in Canon 9 of the Code of Professional Responsibility, adopted by this Court effective February 27, 1974, 455 Pa. lvii (1974):
“A lawyer should avoid even the appearance of impropriety.” The ethical considerations which accompany the Canon expand upon this concept. See 438 Pa. xxv, cxiii-cxiv (1970).

. As the opinion of the Court points hut, the Court has also stated that even principles of set-off to avoid double compensation do not apply to a person who is a public officer as distinguished from a public employee. Vega v. Burgettstown Borough, 394 Pa. 406, 147 A.2d 620 (1956). This Was not, however, a holding of that case, as the majority would read it, but dictum only. Moreover, Vega was not concerned with forfeiture of salary, but only with set-off Of a salary of a public employee.

. Note particularly Canon 7 of the Code of Judicial Conduct, supra note 1, 455 Pa. at xliv-xlvi, which by its terms applies to lawyers who áre candidates for judicial office. See also Blakslee, Lawyers and Elections, 54 A.B.A.J. 410 (1968).

. Article V, Section 16(a) provides in full:
“Justice, judges and justices of the peace shall be compensated by the Commonwealth as provided by law. Their compensation shall not be diminished during their terms of office, unless by law applying generally to all salaried officers of the Commonwealth.”

. Pa.Const. art. V, § 17(a); Canon 5(F), Code of Judicial Conduct, supra note 1; Act of April 14, 1834, P.L. 333, § 75, 17 P.S. § 1607 (1962).

. An alternative argument raised by appellant, and also rejected by the Court, is that if the salary demanded by Judge Reed is to be paid, it should be reduced by the amount he earned from private practice. Thus, under the facts of this case, Judge Reed would receive some $13,000 in judicial salary, rather than the approximately $31,000 he claims. The difficulty with this approach is that while it would lessen the vice inherent in allowing full double compensation, it would nevertheless fail to remove the appearance of impropriety which comes from sanctioning the payment to a judicial officer of earnings from incompatible sources for the same period of time.