Court Opinion

ID: 9595528
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:41:20.799849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:01:28.165590
License: Public Domain

Rosellini, J.
(dissenting) — Article 3, section 20 of the Washington State Constitution provides, with respect to the state auditor’s duties:
The auditor shall be auditor of public accounts, and shall have such powers and perform such duties in connection therewith as may be prescribed by law.
Interpreting this provision in Yelle v. Bishop, 55 Wn.2d 286, 347 P.2d 1081 (1959), this court said that, under this provision, the legislature has exclusive discretion to fix, enlarge, or diminish the duties of the Auditor. It was contended in that case that the Auditor had certain inherent powers which could not be taken away by the legislature, but this court rejected that theory and noted that, the constitution being a limitation upon and not a grant of powers to the legislature, its power with respect to the office was plenary. The court noted also that the office is one which the legislature may abolish, if it chooses.
Here, the Auditor does not rely upon any claim of inherent or implied powers. He relies upon an express legislative provision making it his duty to conduct postaudits of all state agencies. RCW 43.09.290 provides:
For the purposes of RCW 43.09.290 through 43.09.340 post-audit means an annual audit of the books, records, funds, and financial transactions of a state department for a complete fiscal period; pre-audit means all other audits and examinations; state department means elective officers and offices, and every other office, officer, department, board, council, committee, commission, authority, or agency of the state government now existing or hereafter created, supported, wholly or in part, by appropriations from the state treasury or funds under its control, or by the levy, assessment, collection, or receipt of fines, penalties, fees, licenses, sales of commodities, service charges, rentals, grants-in-aid, or other income provided by law, and all state educational, penal, reformatory, charitable, eleemosynary, or other institutions, *635supported, wholly or in part, by appropriations from the state treasury or funds under its control.
(Italics mine.)
It will be seen that this provision makes no exceptions. If an organization is in fact an agency of state government and is supported by income provided by law, it is subject to the audit.
Is the integrated bar an agency of state government? It is authorized and provided for as such by statute. RCW 2.48. It exercises delegated powers of both the judicial and legislative branches of state government. It participates in the regulation of the profession (RCW 2.48.060) and prescribes the amount of the license fee (RCW 2.48.130) .3
In In re Bruen, 102 Wash. 472, 477, 172 P. 1152 (1918), this court said:
The cases are fairly uniform upon the proposition that admitting to practice, suspending, and disbarring are judicial functions. The legislative power, in the interest of uniformity of standard[s] and to remedy and prevent mischiefs in the profession, may regulate and restrict this power, but cannot take it away. It may provide machinery for the administration of the regulation provided by the legislature, as in carrying into effect such regulations some agency is necessary.
(Italics mine.)
Now, it is evident that, under our' constitution, this board may exercise such delegated legislative powers as have been granted to it, which are the examination of applicants for admission to the bar and the prescribing of certain rules; and they are competent to exercise the administrative powers conferred upon them of investigating the conduct of attorneys who have been admitted, to ascertain whether or not they should be permitted to continue to practice their profession, in order that the mischiefs sought to be remedied by the legislature may be remedied and prevented, and may initiate complaints in such cases and hear the evidence, and make reports and findings thereon. But the board is not a court and cannot exercise the functions of a court, except the limited function of passing upon evidence received by them and reporting it. They can make no order striking the name of an attorney from the rolls or disbarring him from practice.
*636This case has often been cited, albeit most frequently for the principle, with which I have not the slightest quarrel, that the admission, suspension, and disbarment of attorneys are entirely the prerogatives of this court. The statement quoted is in accord with the general rule. 7 C.J.S. Attorney and Client § 5 (1937); 1 E. Thornton, Attorneys at Law § 29 (1914). In Thornton’s treatise, it is said at page 33:
The judicial function which is exercised in the act of admitting an attorney at law to practice is not to be, as it sometimes is, confused with the right to make reasonable regulations concerning such admissions. In the absence of constitutional authority to the contrary, the legislature undoubtedly has the right to regulate the practice of law, as well as other professions and occupations the regulation of which is for the public welfare.
(Footnote omitted.)
To be entitled to practice law, an applicant must comply with all the conditions required by statute, as well as by rule of court (In re Ellis, 118 Wash. 484, 203 P. 957 (1922)) at least to the extent that those statutes do not conflict with the court’s rules. See In re Chi-Dooh Li, 79 Wn.2d 561, 488 P.2d 259 (1971).
The authority to act with the sanction of government behind the action determines whether or not a governmental agency exists, and the form the agency takes or the functions it performs are not determinative. Lassiter v. Guy F. Atkinson Co., 176 F.2d 984 (9th Cir. 1949); 21 A.L.R.2d 1313 (1952); 73 C.J.S. Public Administrative Bodies and Procedure § 6 (1951).
Thus, the bar association is a state agency, not only because it is expressly created and designated as such in RCW 2.48.010, but also because of the functions it performs. The fact that in performing certain functions in connection with the admission and disciplining of attorneys, it acts as an agency of the court, does not make it any less an agency of the state. The court itself is a branch of state government, and it must follow that the agencies which exercise a portion of its delegated power are state agencies. Furthermore, it seems inescapable to my mind that, in exercising *637the powers conferred upon it and the duties imposed upon it under RCW 2.48, the bar association acts as an agency of the state.
Particularly is this true with respect to its functions in prescribing the amount of the membership fees, collecting those fees, and disbursing them. The admission and membership fees are mandatory. RCW 2.48.130-.180. They are in effect license fees and take the place of those formerly levied directly by the legislature. See Rem. Rev. Stat. § 139-20 (P.C. § 173). This court held in Smith v. Kneisley, 184 Wash. 26, 49 P.2d 916 (1935), that the legislature has the right to make the payment of such fees a condition of the right to practice law, which, it said, was a franchise given by the state. The duty to pay the registration fees imposed by that statute was also upheld in State v. Holmes, 133 Wash. 543, 234 P. 275 (1925).
The general rule is the same. In 1 E. Thornton, Attorneys at Law § 63, at 96 (1914), the treatise declares that, in the absence of any constitutional inhibition, it is well settled that the imposition of an occupation tax or license fee upon attorneys at law is entirely within the power of the legislature. E. Weeks, Attorneys and Counsellors at Law § 41 (2d ed. 1892), is to the same effect.
In the case of State ex rel. Schwab v. State Bar Ass’n, 80 Wn.2d 266, 493 P.2d 1237 (1972), an attorney refused to pay the fee imposed under RCW 2.48.130 in order to precipitate an action in which he could challenge certain programs, practices, and activities of the bar association. It was there contended that the mandatory suspension for nonpayment of dues provided in RCW 2.48.160 amounted to an unconstitutional usurpation of the Supreme Court’s power to discipline attorneys and to suspend them from the practice of law. We held that it was not the legislative intent to interfere in any way with the court’s exercise of its constitutional power.
There is language in that case which would appear to renounce the principle set forth in Smith v. Kneisley, supra, and the other authorities I have cited which declare *638it to be settled that the legislature has the power to impose license fees and to condition the right to practice upon the payment of such fees. However, no authority was cited in support of that language, and I believe that a careful reading of the opinion will reveal that it was unnecessary to the decision. It was only necessary to state that any suspension pursuant to the statute is subject to judicial review.
I must admit that I signed the majority opinion, but subsequent research and reflection have convinced me that the concurring opinion of Hale, J., more accurately states the law with respect to the coexisting powers of the court and the legislature.
The majority in this case does not question the legislative power to authorize the bar to collect annual membership fees and to spend the proceeds.
In any event, whether the fees are collected pursuant to statute, or pursuant to delegated court power, as the dictum in Schwab would indicate, the Board of Governors, in collecting those fees, acts as an agent of the state. It is altogether fitting, appropriate, and in no sense an interference with the judicial power that the records concerning the funds thus collected should be subject to the scrutiny of the State Auditor. They are public accounts. In State v. Merrill, 83 Wash. 8, 14, 144 P. 925 (1914), this court held that even the accounts of a savings and loan association are properly subject to examination by the State Auditor pursuant to statute. The court stated that such associations are “public associations doing business with the public, as banks, insurance companies and other trust companies, and are subject to regulation on the same theory that these other trust companies are subject to lawful regulation.”
If commercial enterprises such as these are sufficiently public in nature to justify subjecting their accounts to a state audit, it should be beyond question that the financial affairs of the legislatively authorized organization of the legal profession (a profession whose duty to the public is as great as its duty to the courts) should also be open to the *639Auditor’s scrutiny. As this court aptly said in Smith v. Kneisley, supra at 31-32:
If any one class of persons more than another should be pleased to respect and obey the law, it is the lawyers, because of their peculiar and honorary relation to the administration of the law.
The function of the Auditor is purely ministerial. It is in no sense judicial. He simply examines the records to see what has occurred and reports the facts accordingly. If someone whose rights were involved were inclined to take issue with his findings, he could challenge them in court, I would imagine, and a justiciable issue might then be presented.
The judicial power is the power to hear and determine controversies — the power to adjudicate. Tacoma v. O’Brien, 85 Wn.2d 266, 534 P.2d 114 (1975). If the auditor performs an adjudicatory function, he performs such a function wherever he audits, not merely when he audits the accounts of the bar association. But it cannot be that his function is unconstitutional, for the constitution itself expressly authorizes it.
The fact that the three branches of state government exercise different functions does not mean that they are entirely divorced from each other — that one cannot affect the other in any way. The legislature is the body which is constituted to decide upon public policy and make the laws, but those laws are all subject to modification by the court, which has assumed, out of necessity, the power to interpret the laws and to declare their constitutionality. In doing so, it affects legislation, in greater or lesser degrees.
Also, the court must depend upon the executive to enforce its decrees, and it must depend upon the legislature to provide the funds necessary for its existence and functioning.
The interdependence of the branches of government, the shading of functions, is of course much more extensive and complex than this. But I think these examples should be sufficient to show that the court cannot isolate itself or *640its agents from the other branches. I do not quarrel with the notion that the court should be diligent in preserving the integrity of the judicial function, but I do not believe that function is involved in this controversy. The court’s power with respect to attorneys is the power to admit, to discipline, and to disbar. In re Bruen, 102 Wash. 472, 172 P. 1152 (1918). Inherent in this power is the power to prescribe qualifications and standards. But the imposing of license fees is a legislative function. The collecting and disbursing of them pursuant to statutory authority are administrative functions, not judicial functions. The auditing of accounts is a function of the executive branch.
This court has always submitted without question to the auditing of its accounts, and rightly so, since the funds spent by the court are provided by the people, acting through the legislature. If the court itself is properly subject to the Auditor’s scrutiny, how much more so is one of its agencies, which merely exercises administrative powers and which collects and expends fees under public authority.
The auditing of the accounts of the state bar association is no more an interference with the functioning of this court than is the auditing of the accounts of the land commissioner’s office an interference with the executive. If auditing is interfering, it is an interference authorized and sanctioned by the constitution. In providing for the auditing of public accounts, the constitution excludes no department of government.
I can perceive no basis in legal principle and have found no precedent to support the majority’s decision herein. The suggestion that, because a performance audit of the bar association is not authorized under RCW 43.88.160, a post-audit is not authorized or required under RCW 43.09.290, ignores the obvious difference between the two statutes. RCW 43.88.160, by its terms, applies only to the executive branch. (I think the majority will agree with me that the bar association is not an agency of that department.) RCW 43.09.290 contains no such limitation. In unmistakable lan*641guage it is made applicable to all officers, departments, agencies, etc., holding the type of funds designated therein. The Washington State Bar Association falls within its very broad embrace.
I would grant the writ.
Wright, J., concurs with Rosellini, J.
Petition for rehearing denied June 29, 1976.

However, it does not perform any adjudicatory function. In In re Bruen, 102 Wash. 472, 478-79, 172 P. 1152 (1918), it was said: