Court Opinion

ID: 9729637
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 14:45:22.832737+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:26:00.328701
License: Public Domain

BENSON, J., Concurring and Dissenting.
The majority correctly determine that the trial court abused its discretion in denying appellant’s motion for further discovery regarding the relationship and discussions between attorney Foley and appellant’s case administrator. I concur in that aspect of the opinion.
Implicit in this court’s reversal of the trial court’s order denying further discovery lies an acknowledgement that when the trial court denied the motion to disqualify it was acting on an incomplete record. Having failed to compel the discovery to which appellants were lawfully entitled, the trial court’s action on the disqualification motion was, at best, premature. The majority now compound this error by upholding a lower court decision which should not have been made in the first instance. In doing so my colleagues offer an advisory opinion on an incomplete record, to which I dissent.
A leading California case on the subject of judicial discretion, Gossman v. Gossman (1942) 52 Cal.App.2d 184 [126 P.2d 178], observes: “. . . The mere fact that a court may have jurisdiction to make an order does not equip it to exercise judicial discretion. Its acts must not only be confined within the field of discretion but must also be of a character within the bounds of the limiting adjective ‘judicial.’ To exercise that power all the material facts in evidence must be both known and considered, together also with the legal principles essential to an informed, intelligent and just decision. ...” (Id. at p. 194, italics in original.)
Here, a party has been deprived of its right to gather all material facts relating to the disqualification issue. That deprivation resulted from the capricious action of the trial court. It is self evident that where all material facts are not before the court, through no fault of the party seeking to obtain the facts, the discretion exercised is not an informed discretion and the action taken must be repudiated as premature.
I am not willing to render a judgment on the effect of the conduct based on the record currently before us. This is not to say that I could not reach a judgment. However, knowing that the “socializing” and the discussions between attorney and case administrator will be subjected to further examination under oath, potentially resulting in additional evidence elaborating and defining the nature and extent of the transgression, I deem it imprudent for the majority to attempt to fashion a rule or guideline regarding *314disqualification for conduct which remains, in great measure, unknown. The underlying issue has moral and ethical implications far too important to be treated by an advisory opinion on an incomplete record.
Moreover, I am fearful that the majority opinion may oifer the trial judge more confusion than enlightenment when the disqualification motion is presumably renewed after a more complete record is developed. While the majority cites language from Comden v. Superior Court (1978) 20 Cal.3d 906 [145 Cal.Rptr. 9, 576 P.2d 971, 5 A.L.R.4th 562], on several occasions in its opinion, they are silent as to an important policy concept enunciated in the Comden decision. Specifically: “However, ultimately the issue involves a conflict between a client’s right to counsel of his choice and the need to maintain ethical standards of professional responsibility. ‘The preservation of public trust both in the scrupulous administration of justice and in the integrity of the bar is paramount. . . . [The client’s recognizably important right to counsel of his choice] must yield, however, to considerations of ethics which run to the very integrity of our judicial process’ (Hull v. Celanese Corporation (2d Cir. 1975) 513 F.2d 568, 572.)” (Id. at p. 915, italics added.)
In light of the above, I suggest that the majority opinion is too narrow and restrictive when it states, “. . . the significant question is whether there exists a genuine likelihood that the status or misconduct of the attorney in question will affect the outcome of the proceedings before the court.” (Maj. opn., p. 309.) This standard has the vice of focusing attention on the end result of the misconduct and ignores completely what Comden stated to be a matter of paramount importance, i.e., “the preservation of public trust both in the scrupulous administration of justice and in the integrity of the bar.’ ”
Further confusion results, from the majority’s treatment of “appearance of impropriety” as a basis for disqualification. (Maj. opn., pp. 305-309.) While in the last analysis my colleagues appear to leave the concept intact, there is no doubt that they demean its significance in disqualification proceedings. This is unfortunate for much of the authority they rely upon, case law and commentary, is language uttered in the context of conflict of interest situations. The case before us is not a conflict of interest case. So far as they are known, the acts of Mr. Foley, characterized by the trial judge as “the essence of unprofessionalism and poor judgment,” suggest the employment of guile and chicanery to reap an unfair advantage, tactics which directly assault the integrity of the judicial process and necessarily erode public trust and confidence in the administration of justice and the bar.
We are told by the majority that “. . . judges lack the empirical data necessary to accurately discern the views of the appropriate group” (to *315whom the conduct in question must appear improper.) We are cited to Wolfram’s treatise, Model Legal Ethics (which, in all fairness, was addressing appearance of impropriety in the context of conflict of interest problems) for the following comment: . . But courts lack both access to reliable facts and a workable method for thinking through, on a case by case basis, the question whether the particular result sought by one or the other of the parties will increase, decrease, or leave unaffected the general level of public or client confidence.’ ” (Maj. opn., pp. 307-308.) Whether these statements are reliable authority when considering a conflict of interest problem is problematical at least. Here, however, they have no place whatever. I can think of no body more qualified to determine whether improper conduct has compromised the integrity of the judicial process than the judges who are sworn and entrusted to administer and preserve the process.
A petition for a rehearing was denied February 17, 1989, and the opinion was modified to read as printed above. Benson, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted. Respondents’ petition for review by the Supreme Court was denied April 5, 1989. Lucas, C. J., and Panelli, J., did not participate therein.