Court Opinion

ID: 9668927
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 02:32:25.994067+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:49.795926
License: Public Domain

REAVLEY, Justice
(dissenting).
The extent to which the Fifth Amendment privilege applies in contempt proceedings has not been resolved. I would go no further in the expansion of the privilege than required by the United States Supreme Court. The question in the instant case is not whether the alleged contemnor is entitled to decline to answer specific questions upon the ground of possible incrimination. That contention was never made by relator or by his attorney. Relator took the oath of a witness. He was then called to the stand as an adverse witness. When he was asked to state his name, his attorney objected to his being called as a *549witness because it would violate his privilege against self incrimination. The objection was overruled and no further objection was made on grounds of self incrimination as relator proceeded to answer the questions of both attorneys through 91 pages of the statement of facts.
The right not to be called as a witness has been accorded only to the defendant in the course of a criminal case. Then is the present proceeding a “criminal case?” The hearing was held by the Court of Civil Appeals, and the habeas corpus has come here to the Supreme Court rather than to the Court of Criminal Appeals. We hold that the alleged contemnor was not entitled to a jury. Even if some privileges must be accorded because of the potential fine which may be assessed, our specific question is not accurately resolved by labeling the proceeding a “criminal case.” We should decide which aspects of a criminal proceeding must apply.
In Ex parte Butler, 522 S.W.2d 196 (Tex.1975), we recently said that in a suit by the State seeking to recover monetary penalties because of the violation of the Texas Solid Waste Disposal Act or the Texas Water Quality Act, the State could call the defendant as a witness or could take his deposition. We further said that the defendant could avoid answering a question only in the event his response might subject him to a criminal penalty. There is a difference between a proceeding which seeks to hold a party in contempt of court and a suit for “civil penalties”: prior conduct cannot subject the party to confinement in jail in the suit for civil penalty. The same action may seek a monetary penalty and also an injunction which, if subsequently violated, might then lead to a contempt proceeding and possible confinement. In the present case the contemnor faces confinement only because he refuses to pay the fine which was assessed because of his contempt. Nevertheless, the party was subject to the penalty of confinement at the outset of the contempt proceeding.
It is my understanding of the United States Supreme Court writing that all alleged contemnors (at least in “criminal contempt” proceedings) must be given the privilege to decline to answer questions which might tend to prove their own contempt. I would stop there; I would not go further and reverse this case on the sole ground that Werblud was required to take the witness stand.
GREENHILL, C. J., and STEAKLEY and SAM D. JOHNSON, JJ., join in this dissent.