The Mississippi Supreme Court fined Hinds County Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn $9,534 on February 27, 2012 for failing to "properly file an appeal" in a case. The court ordered Ms. Dunn to personally pay the fine. The court also suspended an employee for thirty days and ordered mandatory training for Ms. Dunn's staff on an annual basis. Ms. Dunn recently spoke to Jackson Jambalaya about the fine.
Ms. Dunn said when a file is sent to the Supreme Court for appeal, not everything in the file is included. All relevant documents such as pleadings and answers are placed on the right side of the file. Documents such as subpoenas and return of service of process are placed on the left side of the file. She said the Supreme Court likes the file to be "clean". This particular case was T. Lyons & Associates v. Precious Martin & Associates (#251-10-140). Both parties are law firms. Attorney Lee Howell represented T. Lyons.
Ms. Dunn said the clerk forgot to include "one bound pleading" in the file sent to the court. She said the clerk held the pleading for eight days before it was sent. She said her office wasn't notified to send the file until the end of the day and that one of the eight days included a holiday. Didn't matter, Mr. Howell notified the Supreme Court the file was incomplete. The attorney, Lee Howell, filed a motion to compel the circuit clerk to transmit complete record for T. Lyons & Associates with the Mississippi Supreme Court. The court issued an order on May 11, 2011 remanding the case back to Hinds County Circuit Judge Tomie Green. The court ordered Judge Green to determine "if the appellate records is complete" and if the clerk "originally" submitted the file to the court in accordance with the rules. The oourt ordered Judge Green to issue an order in this case by July 11, 2011.
Well, it being Judge Green, that meant she issued an order on August 2, 2011. Judge Green ordered the Circuit Clerk to pay the filing fee of $100 for T. Lyons and did not award attorneys fees. Judge Green ruled the file was "currently complete". Judge Green said the record as originally filed with the Supreme Court was incomplete but the Clerk sent the remaining documents when she learned of the error although the deadlines were not met. Judge Green said the clerk did not "strictly comply" with the rules for preparing the record for appeal but her errors were "not made in bad faith." Judge Green also ruled she was not properly training and the lack of such training led to the current controversy. Judge Green said she filed a supplement when the omission was brought to her attention. Judge Green said there was "no credible evidence" of any harm done to T. Lyons by her error and that delays already took place when two judges recused themselves. Copy of order
The Mississippi Supreme Court said thank you Judge Green, but we are going to take your order under advisement and drop the hammer on Ms. Dunn. The court heard the case on January 24, 2012. The court ignored Judge Green's fine and imposed a fine of $9,354 on Ms. Dunn. The court determined the fine based upon an invoice submitted by Mr. Howell (see page 11 in the documents posted below). Mr. Howell claimed fees of $9,135 based on 43.5 hours at $210 per hour. Mr. Howell claimed 2.8 hours for a telephone conference with the clerk and another telephone conference with his client. Another 2.5 hours discussing the record with his client. 4.5 hours on the motion to compel. Another 5.1 hours for working on the motion to compel. Yet another 3.9 hours "preparing, serving, and filing the motion to compel" (That makes it 13.5 hours spent working on the motion to compel.). More telephone conferences. It all added up to the $9,534 fine.
Ms. Dunn said she had to borrow the money to pay the fine as she does not draw a full salary as circuit clerk. The Circuit Clerk said she started drawing her retirement pay several years ago and is only paid 25% of her salary. She said she is working to provide training for her clerks as the regular training provided to circuit clerks is held only once every four years for new circuit clerks.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Court overrules Judge Green, fines Dunn.
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25 comments:
I need to run for office so I can retire and still be elected to office.
Your account of this incident is confused at best. Where is the Supreme Court Order showing Green as having been overruled???
Guess you can't figure out ignoring her fine and imposing its own is an overrulement.
Your bias toward Green is showing. I see an order issued by Green on February 27th, 2012, not the Supreme Court, imposing the fine and other sanctions on Dunn.
KF, I'm not sure I follow your description either.
In its Jan. 2012 order, the MSSC said:
The Court also finds that the circuit court abused its discretion in finding that Lyons was not damaged or prejudiced. Based on the pleadings, the testimony before the circuit court, and the circuit court’s findings, frequent systemic errors are occurring in the circuit clerk’s office. These errors are directly caused by the circuit clerk’s failure properly to train the employees in her office. The circuit clerk, not litigants, must bear the costs of these errors. Lyons has incurred unnecessary expense for its time and effort expended in attempting to persuade the clerk to transmit the designated appellate record. Had the clerk properly prepared the appellate record, as designated, Lyons would not have incurred any of these costs. Additionally, the circuit clerk’s errors delayed the filing of the complete appellate record in this matter and therefore, delayed this appeal. Clearly, Lyons was financially damaged.
So they remanded for Green to impose the directed sanctions, including att'y fees. But the MSSC couldn't compute the fees - it remanded for Judge Green to do it.
Which Judge Green did, finally, in the Feb. 2012 order you've posted.
So I'm not quite understanding how you say the MSSC, not Judge Green, imposed a fine of specific dollar value and computed it based on Howell's invoice.
Your overall point is correct: Green erroneously denied att'y fees and was reversed by the MSSC. But I think your description needs a little editing. Or am I missing something?
11:53 and 12:15--looks like we have us a new resident Green Team apologist. Probably the same d/a who was defending her on her illegal concealed carry order.
Lose the spin. The facts and results of the case are exactly like KF reported.
And more public funds and resources are pissed away because Judge Tomie T. Green just can't get it right.
It would be interesting, if tedious, to run a search on each trial judge in the state and figure what % of his/her appealed judgments were reversed.
That could be misleading depending on the raw numbers of judgments issued by that judge, but it would still be fun to know.
It's difficult to tell who's being rooted for in this blog post, but here's what is going on:
The Hinds County Circuit Clerk's office is in shambles and has been so for years. Dunn has been cited on numerous occasions for failure to obey the MRCP, and for generally running a shoddy operation. http://courts.ms.gov/Images/Opinions/CO65990.pdf
The Supreme Court is likely getting tired of it, so they are dropping the hammer on every offense. It's about damn time.
If you frequent the Clerk's office, you see not only the problems (poorly kept files, loose pleadings on the floor in the various file rooms, etc.) but also the root cause (2-3 employees playing Solitaire or Minesweeper at any given time). It's a sinking ship and a bastion of injustice. There is no punishment to severe. Throw her out office.
Anderson, I have not run the numbers, but I read the handdown lists from both appellate courts every week, and Green and Kidd are easily the worst, and most frequently reversed, judges in Mississippi. This is so even if you look at batting averages rather than just the bottom line numbers. Those two are rarely affirmed.
I'm a Hinds County lawyer and 3:09 is absolutely right. I loathe having to deal with Dunn's office.
Sorry. I was half out of it this morning. Have a periodontal abscess and well, lets just say I was distracted while typing. I'll clarify the post tonight. Sorry once again.
I'm sure your troll(s) will mark it up as a great victory in their pea brains.
NOT talking 'bout you Anderson.
KF, did you ask for proof on the $10k loan or accept honesty? The circuit clerk is a fee-based position capped annually at $90k. However, other duties such as marriage license fees, can raise the fee-based earnings to over $150k especially in Hinds Co. That exceeds earnings above SC Justices.
Dunn's office was sanctioned by MSC in 2008 and fined $5k in 2010 that she erroneously paid from the clerk's fee account and not from her personal account as instructed. She corrected that mistake since taxpayers should not pay for the circuit clerk office's lack of performance.
Your final comment that "regular training is held only once every four years for new circuit clerks" indicates Dunn is a new at this circuit clerk business when, in fact, she has held the position for 28yrs.
Explain how Dunn gets re-elected in a Democratic county when she resembles a republican?
KF, did you ask for proof on the $10k loan or accept honesty?
Where can we find an example of your reporting expertise?
These Bugler's do try sooooooo hard. I've been thinking, since many here coined the phrase The Fondren Bugle and it appears the merry band of malcontents are gonna entertain us with their enriched humor on a new blog, perhaps a naming poll is in order. My submission: something to do with "the ????? Gadfly." Check out Wikipedia for the Gadfly's appropriateness. Bet they didn't study Greek.
Shedtool I don't expect you to actually read it on Wikipedia.
Yow, hope you're feeling better today KF
I'll take that suggestion Roo! I think Gadfly is quite appropriate for a few of us. Thanks!
"In modern and local politics, gadfly is a term used to describe someone who persistently challenges people in positions of power, the status quo or a popular position...The word may be uttered in a pejorative sense, while at the same time be accepted as a description of honourable work or civic duty."
Sounds pretty perfect! I'll accept the latter definition/meaning.
8:05
It's located the same place you could have found it if you didn't expect others to do everything for you.
MS Code of 1972
amended 2000
Section 9-1-43
You are such a numbskull you completely missed the point.
Butter my gadfly comment was intended for the online tablog elsewhere than your site. In other news what made you take down links in original post?
I've always enjoyed your writing, pre-Madonna influence. Am curious to see results of new endeavor.
In at least one appeal, I have had to get the Supreme Court to order the Hinds County Circuit Court to produce a record. Utter incompetence and worthless lazy employees. The Sargasso Sea of the Mississippi court system.
Kingfish is appareantly a bit of a soothsayer. The Lyons/Martin appeal that precipitated this whole Charlie Foxtrot was resolved by the Supreme Court today. Interesting reading on your favorite attorney, Precious Martin. http://courts.ms.gov/Images/Opinions/CO76779.pdf
good job, KF. Side note, hope you feel better soon. Teeth problems suck.
very astute comment made above: "the root cause (2-3 employees playing Solitaire or Minesweeper at any given time)." Why would any of them give a damn if they aren't the ones getting in trouble. Give Dunn a chance to clean house, get competent ones in there. If that doesn't solve it, then look at Dunn. But clean out the Solitaire playing ones first.
check out mississippi college law school/library "judicial data project" on their website.
It will produce the numbers you seek for the years covered.
It is an interesting site and very useful for litigators who are interested in learning more about the judges/justices.
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