Court Opinion

ID: 9614638
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:27:00.394278+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:37.768350
License: Public Domain

Justice WEBB
dissenting.
I dissent. The Board of Law Examiners has denied the appellant the right to be admitted to the bar in this State. The Board based this decision on the following finding:
Applicant has failed to satisfy the Board that he possesses the qualifications of character and general fitness requisite for an attorney and counselor at law and that he is of such good moral character as to be entitled to the high regard and confidence of the public.
This conclusion of the Board was based on the way the appellant answered certain questions on the application to take the bar examination in this state and on a finding as to how he practiced law in West Virginia. The appellant did not list on his application all his prior residences, two jobs at which he worked, a debt in the amount of $250.00 owed for rent on an office he had used in West Virginia, a debt in the amount of $316.00 to a private investigator in West Virginia, and a loan from the appellant’s mother-in-law in the amount of $10,000.00. The appellant also failed to list an action which had been filed against him in a magistrate’s court in West Virginia, which action was dismissed. In addition he had represented a woman in West Virginia and obtained a judgment for her. She requested on 10 June 1986 that he deliver to her the legal papers in that action and he did not do so until 28 April 1987.
The appellant appeared before a panel of the Board on 17 April 1987 and the full Board on 15 May 1987. He explained that he had resubmitted the same application to take the February 1987 bar examination as he had submitted for the 1986 examination. *675In the process he had forgotten that debts of more than $200.00 had to be listed. For this reason he did not list the debts for rent or to the private investigator. When he closed his law office he billed the State of West Virginia for work he had done for indigent defendants, which included the bill for the private investigator’s work. He received checks for this work after he had moved to North Carolina and the checks did not show that any part of them were for the private investigator. He deposited the checks to his account in this state and when it was called to his attention that he owed the private investigator he made arrangements to pay it. When it was called to his attention that he owed rent in West Virginia he paid this.
The applicant testified that he inadvertently left off his application his former residences and his places of employment. He testified he did not intend to deceive the Board. As to the $10,000.00 debt to his mother-in-law, the appellant testified that she lent this money to him and his wife to help them buy a home in North Carolina. His mother-in-law asked him not to tell her other children as they would feel she was favoring his wife. After the death of the mother-in-law, his wife’s brother confronted him in regard to the loan and he admitted it. He and his wife had signed a paper which said the loan would be treated by his wife as an advancement from her mother’s estate and he did not consider it a debt.
On 30 July 1987 the Board entered an order denying the appellant the right to stand for the bar examination. On 24 March 1988 Judge D. Marsh McLelland remanded the case to the Board with instructions (1) to determine whether the failure of the applicant to make full disclosure concerning his places of residence, his prior employment, and his debts over $200.00 were purposeful omissions designed to mislead the Board, (2) to specify with particularity what facts it relied upon in reaching its conclusion that the applicant’s answers to questions on the application displayed a lack of candor in dealing with the Board, (3) to specify with particularity how the Board reached the conclusion that in his West Virginia law practice the applicant demonstrated a pattern of carelessness, neglect and inattention to detail, and (4) to specify what facts it relied upon to support its conclusion that the applicant failed to satisfy the Board that he possesses such good moral character as to be entitled to the high regard and confidence of the public.
*676On remand the Board found that the applicant’s failure to make full disclosure of his places of residence, prior employment and debts over $200.00 were not inadvertent but evidenced a lack of candor and fairness in dealing with the Board. The Board found that the appellant’s answers to various questions on the application displayed a lack of candor and fairness. In particular the Board held the failure to list his places of residence, his places of employment, his debts in excess of $200.00, and the magistrate’s court action against him indicated a pattern of failing to disclose material matters. It held the applicant had offered no plausible explanation for his failure to fully disclose the matters requested of him and rejected his claim that his failure to list these matters was due to inadvertence. It found the effect of these omissions was to mislead and deceive the Board. The Board said that its finding that while the appellant was engaged in the practice of law in West Virginia he demonstrated a pattern of carelessness, neglect, and inattention to detail was supported by his failure to pay the debts for rent and to the private investigator, his failure to review his files to see if other debts were owed and his failure to return the file to the woman he had represented in an action for child support. The Board held that the applicant had not satisfied it that he possesses the qualifications of character and general fitness requisite to practice law in this state.
I believe the Board erred in its findings of fact and conclusions. It appears to me that if the appellant had included all the matters on his application which he omitted it would not have prevented him from taking the bar examination. The appellant must have known this and the only plausible reason for his failing to do so was inadvertence. He may not have understood the importance of furnishing this explanation but this does not mean he consciously attempted to mislead the Board. I believe the testimony of the appellant was credible and there was no contrary evidence. The Board should have accepted it. See In re Rogers, 297 N.C. 48, 253 S.E.2d 912 (1979).
As to the finding that while he was practicing law in West Virginia he demonstrated a pattern of carelessness, neglect, and inattention to detail, the Board held this was based on the failure to pay the debt to the private investigator, his failure to pay his rent, his failure to review his files after his law practice was closed to see if any other payments were due, and his failure to deliver a file to a client for whom he had obtained a judgment. *677The failure to pay the rent and the failure to pay the private investigator were matters that occurred after the appellant’s West Virginia law practice was closed. I do not believe they support any conclusion as to what he did while practicing law in West Virginia. There is no evidence as to anything that would have been revealed had the files been reviewed. I do not believe this supports any conclusions as to how the appellant practiced law in West Virginia. The evidence showed that the appellant represented 298 clients while practicing law in West Virginia. The finding by the Board against him is that he failed to deliver a file to one client. If we add to this his overlooking a bill to a private investigator until the matter was called to his attention, I hardly believe this establishes a pattern of carelessness, neglect, and inattention to detail in his West Virginia law practice.
I vote to reverse the Board of Law Examiners.
Justice MITCHELL joins in this dissenting opinion.