Court Opinion

ID: 9765971
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 04:27:11.841797+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:09:03.279901
License: Public Domain

Bogdanski, J.
(dissenting.) As properly noted in the majority opinion, “we are merely exercising the undoubted appellate jurisdiction which this court has over the judgment of a trial court in this state.” That judgment is the denial by the Superior Court *180on May 5, 1972, of an application made pursuant to Practice Book § 15A. That is the only court action before us.
An examination of the entire record discloses (1) that the parties and the court misunderstood the procedure for making a § 15A application for admission of an out-of-state attorney to participate in the trial of a case before a court of this state, and (2) that the trial court misconstrued the provisions of that rule.
Section 15A expressly provides that the application is to be made by “a member of the bar of this state.” See footnote 1 of the majority opinion. In this case, the application was made by the plaintiff through his Connecticut attorney. While this defect is not a matter of any substance, it is important to emphasize that such an application is not one brought by the litigant, but rather it is one that is brought by a member of the bar of this state and an officer of the court. See In re Application of Plantamura, 149 Conn. 111, 113, 176 A.2d 61, cert. denied, 369 U.S. 872, 82 S. Ct. 1141, 8 L. Ed. 2d 275; Heiberger v. Clark, 148 Conn. 177, 186, 169 A.2d 652. As in an application for admission to the bar, there are no adversary parties in a technical legal sense when application is made for an out-of-state attorney to appear pro hac vice pursuant to § 15A. See Heiberger v. Clark, supra, 182. For those reasons it is not surprising that § 15A does not require an evidentiary hearing to establish the facts set forth in the application. The rule only calls “for good cause shown upon written application.” Indeed, in this case the trial court did not take any evidence, and the parties “in opposition” did not dispute any of the facts set forth in the application. *181The finding of facts, therefore, by the trial court was not warranted. “We have repeatedly stated that a trial court should not make a finding of facts where it hears no evidence. The reason is that such a finding would add nothing to the record; indeed it might well cloud the issue. Biz v. Liquor Control Commission, 133 Conn. 556, 557, 53 A.2d 655; Dion v. Dion, 128 Conn. 416, 417, 23 A.2d 314.” Winchester Repeating Arms Co. v. Radcliffe, 134 Conn. 164, 169, 56 A.2d 1; see Practice Book § 609; Maltbie, Conn. App. Proc. § 126.1
The only “facts” properly before us are the undisputed representations in the written application. The conclusions of the trial court are therefore tested by those representations of fact.
The application in relevant part states that the outcome of the plaintiff’s malpractice case will “affect the financial welfare” of the decedent’s estate; that “the subject matter of the litigation at bar is very technical in nature and difficult to prove”; that “[A]ttorney . . . Julien . . . over the years has acquired a special skill or knowledge with respect to medical malpractice cases, which is important to the trial of the plaintiff’s cause of action”;2 and that the “plaintiff retained , . . Julien to handle this case because of his expertise in the trial of medical malpractice cases.”
*182The trial court concluded that the “plaintiff has presented no facts to warrant a conclusion that good cause under Rule 15A has been established.” That conclusion is erroneous for two reasons. First, the application is made not by the plaintiff, but by “a member of the bar of this state.” No evidence was presented because the veracity of the statements in the application was undisputed. Second, the application arguably shows “good cause” under § 15A because “circumstances affecting the . . . financial welfare of the client” are set forth.
In ruling on the application the trial court stated: “The two principal bases on which he would be permitted here apparently are not present, are they? He [Julien] has no long-standing attorney-client relationship, and although he has a specialized skill, the litigant is certainly not unable to secure the services of Connecticut counsel who have the same skill.” The two principal bases referred to by the trial court are examples given in § 15A of what “may” constitute “good cause.” Those examples *183are not exclusive, as the trial court apparently believed, but are merely illustrations of facts or circumstances affecting the personal or financial welfare of the client.3
I would therefore find error and remand the case with direction to reconsider the application.

 It is, of course, proper to set forth in a finding the conclusions of the court and claims of law of the parties whieh do not appear on the face of the record, but there can be no “facts found” when no evidence is taken.

 The application set forth Julien’s qualifications as follows: “Mr. Julien was admitted to the bar of New York in 1933 and is 'a veteran malpractice attorney’ (opinion of federal court injunction dated April 29, 1971, page 2). In addition, he has participated in a joint symposium held by the Hartford County Bar Association and Hartford County Medical Association, on May 11, 1970, at the *182Hartford Hilton Hotel, on a malpractice seminar, and he has lectured widely on the subject of malpractice to both bar associations and medical groups in New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Tennessee and California. He has tried malpractice cases in the state courts of New York, California, Wisconsin and New Jersey and the Federal District Court in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in each case by special permission of the court; he has written articles on the subject of medical malpractice and some of these articles have been published in medical and legal journals. He has conducted courses in medical malpractice for practicing attorneys in New York and New Jersey, and he has been President of the American Trial Lawyers Association, President of the New York State Trial Lawyers Association, and is currently President of the Metropolitan Trial Lawyers Association, and has been admitted to practice, in addition to the New York Bar, in the United States District Court for the Southern District, New York, the Eastern District, New York, the District of Columbia, the Eastern District, Maryland, the United States District Court, District of Connecticut, and the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.”

 Ethical Consideration 3-9 of the Code of Professional Responsibility is relevant to the interpretation of Rule 15A:
“[T]he demands of business and the mobility of our society pose distinct problems in the regulation of the practice of law by the states. In furtherance of the public interest, the legal profession should discourage regulation that unreasonably imposes territorial limitations upon the right of a lawyer to handle the legal affairs of his client or upon the opportunity of a client to obtain the services of a lawyer of his choice in all matters including the presentation of a contested matter in a tribunal before which the lawyer is not permanently admitted to practice.”
“The Canons and Disciplinary Rules contained in the Code of Professional Responsibility as adopted by the American Bar Association and as recommended by the House of Delegates of the Connecticut Bar Association for adoption were approved, and the Ethical Considerations of the Code as adopted by the American Bar Association were approved in principle, by the judges of the Superior Court effective Oct. 1, 1972. ...” Conn. Practice Book, p. 1 n.