Court Opinion

ID: 9720650
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 08:38:14.271883+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:24:20.287682
License: Public Domain

Swainson, J.
(dissenting). It is imperative to remember precisely what is involved in this case. We are not dealing with a situation where an attorney was paid a retainer and failed to provide any services for his client. The defendant Murphy, after being paid the $6,500 advance, was able to have the charge against Nicholas Begovich reduced from first-degee murder to second-degree murder. In addition, he successfully secured the release of Mr. Begovich on bail. Thus, a bona fide dispute arose between the attorney and the client over the worth of the services.
*219The majority opinion has failed to cite any case in support of the theory that an attorney may be jailed for contempt because of a failure to pay a judgment on a simple contract action. The reason is that this is a novel assertion and there is no case that so holds. The cases which are cited by the majority are clearly distinguishable on their facts. All of these cases involve some form of fiduciary relationship where the attorney was acting in a special capacity. We agree that if this case had involved the transfer of specific funds or property held by the attorney as a trustee for another person, then the failure to turn over these funds could be enforced by contempt. See, for example, Smith v. Lapeer Circuit Judge (1930), 251 Mich 126, and Burnett v. King (1933), 263 Mich 33. The cases which are cited by the majority in footnotes 8 and 10 do involve the situation where the attorney was acting in a special fiduciary relationship.
We have a contract dispute between two individuals. We are no longer dealing with the attorney and his client, or even the attorney and his client’s administrator. The plaintiffs in this cause are successors in interest to the administrator of Mr. Begovich. The majority fails to state why this action should be treated differently from any other contract action. An attorney, merely because of his license to practice law, should not be treated differently from any other judgment debtor. His assets are clearly subject to attachment and execution, the same as any other judgment debtor. See GrCR 1963, 741.1. If the plaintiffs had attempted to use attachment and execution, and for some reason this was not possible, then a question might arise as to whether GrCR 1963, 908, was applicable. But, that is not the situation we are faced with here. The plaintiffs have made absolutely no attempt to use *220the normal method of securing execution on a judgment.
Despite the assertions of the majority, defendant is being jailed for failure to pay a debt. The Michigan rule was well stated in Carnahan v. Carnahan (1906), 143 Mich 390, 396:
“It has been the settled rule in this State that, where execution may issue to collect a decree for the payment of money, the proceeding by contempt to enforce a civil remedy cannot be resorted to. See Haines v. Haines [1876], 35 Mich 138; North v. North [1878], 39 Mich 67; Swarthout v. Lucas [1894], 102 Mich 492, 494.”
At a time when both our Court and the United States Supreme Court have seriously limited the extent of courts to issue contempt citations, see People v. Nowicki (1971), 384 Mich 482, People v. Matish (1971), 384 Mich 568, and Johnson v. Mississippi (1971), 403 US 212 (91 S Ct 1778, 29 L Ed 2d 423), our Court is now opening up a whole new field for the use of the contempt powers. I would reverse the findings of contempt and allow the plaintiffs to proceed in the normal manner to enforce their judgment.
T. G. Kavanagh, J., concurred with Swainson, J.