Local News

Saturday, Oct. 17, 1998

Hilliard won't be disciplined

`Nine nutty professors' case dismissed by Bar

By JIM DAY
Staff Writer

   The Corpus Christi lawyer who called the Texas Supreme Court "nine nutty professors" will not be disciplined by the State Bar of Texas, a grievance committee has decided.
   The Supreme Court had filed a grievance with the State Bar against lawyer Bob Hilliard, saying his language in an attack on the justices violated the dignity of the court.
   At the end of a confidential hearing, the committee dismissed that grievance, saying Hilliard's words were protected by his rights to free speech, he said Friday.
   "It's a strong First Amendment argument," he said. "It's this very type of speech that's protected."
   The grievance committee's ruling came two days after one of Hilliard's co-counsels, Barry Nace, sued eight of the Supreme Court justices, claiming they defamed Nace by dragging him into the spat.
   On Tuesday, Nace filed suit in Nueces County against the State of Texas and the justices because they filed a grievance against him in connection with Hilliard's attack, which Nace had nothing to do with, the suit states.
   The grievances go back to a case in which Hilliard filed a brief saying the Supreme Court had used "humpty-dumpty logic" in overturning a multimillion-dollar jury verdict in his clients' favor. In the brief, Hilliard called the justices "nine nutty professors" and compared the court to the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
   Seven of the nine justices are Republicans, and the issue of partisan politics has been raised in the Hilliard dispute.
   The justices referred Nace and Hilliard, who are both Democrats, to the Texas Grievance Committee and the State Bar of Texas for possible disciplinary measures. A third co-counsel, Rebecca Hamilton, who is a Republican, was not referred for a grievance, Nace's suit notes.
   The court referred Nace, a former president of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America, for possible discipline even though he had not signed the brief, and affidavits from all three lawyers stated that he had nothing to do with filing it, the lawsuit states.
   "The (justices) intentionally tried to hold (Nace) up to ridicule and embarrassment by intentionally ignoring the unmistakable, unqualified, clear facts before it," Nace writes in his suit.
   He writes that the Republican-controlled court retaliated against him because he is a Democrat and a non-Texan, and because of his position as a trial lawyer.
   The suit names Justices Thomas Phillips, Raul Gonzalez, Nathan Hecht, Craig Enoch, Priscilla Owen, James Baker, Greg Abbot and Deborah Hankinson as defendants.
   Justice Rose Spector was not named in the suit, as she disagreed with the court's order to refer Nace and Hilliard for disciplinary proceedings.
   No grievance hearings were ever set in the matter against Nace, but he noted in his suit that his name had not been cleared.
   Hilliard said Friday that the grievance committee's dropping of the case against him strengthened the claims in Nace's suit. If there were no grounds for disciplinary actions against the person who wrote the brief, there was no reason to discipline someone who didn't write it, Hilliard reasoned.
   John Adams, a deputy clerk in the office of the Supreme Court, said the justices could not comment on the suit.
   The state attorney general's office will defend the justices in the lawsuit, but no response to Nace's suit has been filed yet. It was too early for the office to comment on the matter, said Ron Dusek, a spokesman for the attorney general's office.
   In 1991, a Nueces County jury awarded $30 million to 9-year-old Kelly Havner in her case against Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals, which the jury found to be negligent in manufacturing Bendectin, a drug used to fight morning sickness.
   Havner was born with a deformed hand, which the jury linked to the drug.
   The Texas Supreme Court later overturned that award, saying the scientific evidence did not justify awarding the money. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld the Texas court's ruling.
   Staff writer Jim Day can be reached at 886-3794 or by e-mail at dayj@scripps.com

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  © 1998 Corpus Christi Caller Times, a Scripps Howard newspaper. All rights reserved.