Monday, March 28, 2022

Express Grain Update: Farmers' Lawyer Sanctioned

The meatrginder that is the Express Grain case chewed up more casualties Friday.  U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Celene Maddox ruled she will sanction attorney Don Barrett for violating a protective order covering financial information in the Express Grain bankruptcy. 

UMB Bank cried foul last week after Mr. Barrett appeared in an interview on March 17 on the Gallo Radio Show on WFMN on March 17.

 

Judge Maddox  issued a protective order sealing documents and financial information about the parties from public disclosure. To say there is no love lost between UMB Bank and Mr. Barrett is an understatement.  Mr. Barrett represents several farmers in a federal lawsuit against UMB Bank.  They accused the bank of knowing the bank was insolvent a year ago but instead propped up the grain elevator through harvest season so it could grab the crops when delivered. Earlier post. 

Mr. Barrett appeared on The Gallo Radio Show  to discuss the Express Grain case.  UMB claimed in its motion to show cause on March 22: 

8.         UMB  believes  that  Mr.  Barrett  violated  the  Protective  Order  when,  during  the morning of March 17, 2022 (shortly before the parties were set to begin mediation, Dkt. 2543), he participated in an interview on a radio show.  That interview contained numerous false accusations about UMB, so UMB will share the link to the interview with the Court under seal.  During that interview, Mr. Barrett referenced “documents that we have seen that are filtering out,” which UMB believes related to documents produced in the Interest Data Room pursuant to the Section 557 Discovery Procedures and subject to the Protective Order.¹  He also purported to paraphrase some of those documents and proclaimed that UMB made certain statements in those documents.  Then, Mr. Barrett launched into numerous unfounded and false accusations about the bank’s intentions. UMB will address the substance of those false accusations in due course, at the appropriate time contemplated by the Section 557 Discovery Procedures.

 UMB is probably referring to this portion of the interview:  


UMB asked Judge Maddox to hold the Lexington attorney in contempt of court and impose sanctions. 

 

 Mr. Barrett fired back at UMB two days later, refusing to back down.  He argued: 

 

Second, UMB complains that the undersigned counsel—in UMB’s words—“purported to paraphrase some of those documents and proclaimed that UMB made certain statements in those documents.” But the undersigned counsel did not reference any document nor state that he had a document that he was paraphrasing. UMB’s motion does not assert that the undersigned did so, because he did not. Notably, UMB does not (because it cannot) identify any document that was paraphrased  nor  any  specific  statement  that  is  somehow  in  violation  of  the  Protective  Order. Absent such an allegation, the motion is hopelessly vague and utterly pointless, as federal courts are not in the business of issuing advisory opinions concerning hypothetical sets of facts that are not  before  them.  UMB’s  motion  does  not  indicate  or  evidence  any  possible  violation  of  the Protective Order.

Third, UMB complains that the undersigned counsel “launched into numerous unfounded and false accusations about the bank’s intentions.” The Protective Order prohibits parties from disseminating protected information, not from stating views their adversaries disagree with.  Thus, even if it were true that the undersigned made statements that were “false,” it would be irrelevant to the Court’s inquiry under the Protective Order.  Notably absent from the scope of the Protective Order is any limitation on the undersigned counsel discussing the bank’s intentions. (See quote of the  Protective  Order  supra).  Discussion  of  the  bank’s  wicked  intentions  does  not  relate  to documents and is not protected or covered by the scope of the Protective Order....

UMB Bank’s motion merely seeks to broaden the scope of the Protective Order and inhibit media  coverage  of  this  dispute.  Notably,  UMB  does  not  assert  that  the  undersigned  released commercially sensitive information such as would warrant protection. For example,  UMB does not complain that the undersigned produced financial information of UMB needing protection, or that UMB was harmed or prejudiced in any way. Rather, UMB merely seeks to protect its tortious misconduct from public knowledge. This is not a sound public purpose warranting a departure from the general rule that the United States’ federal courts are, indeed, open to the public.

Mr. Barrett's protestations were to no avail.  Judge Maddox ruled Friday: 

Motion granted. UMB to submit invoice for costs and fees by April 1, 2022 at 5:00 PM CST. Court will allow three calendar days for Mr. Barrett to respond to reasonableness of claim. Court to prepare order detailing its bench ruling and assessing dollar amount sanctions within 14 days of this date.

It appears Mr. Barrett will have to pay up to Express Grain.  



19 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don will appeal this to the nth degree.

Bank will spend more in 2 years on sanctions part….won’t be worth it

Anonymous said...

Oh great. Another Express grain update to distract from the skull drag going on below.

Anonymous said...

Where did all the $$$ go?

Anonymous said...

So unethical Express Grain has a bank that Barrett claims in unethical. However, Barrett can't follow simple attorney ethics. What a circus this whole thing is turning into. It's like a clown car. One clown after another keeps exiting the car with no end in sight.

Can these folks not follow a simple judge's order? How old are these people? They are all acting like children.

Anonymous said...

3:56 PM That money bought a one way ticket overseas.

Anonymous said...

I'm surprised it's claimed that Barrett breached the order by commenting since Gallo never in hell has allowed a guest to comment, period. How can this be?

Anonymous said...

Barrett let his jaybird mouth overload his titmouse @$$

Anonymous said...

Getting sanctioned by a court is not considered a normal part of trial advocacy.

Also, there is no "nth degree" of appeals. He can go to the 5th Circuit, where the legal standard would be "abuse of discretion." If he fails there, he can petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari, which he probably won't get. Then he's done.

If either appellate court finds the appeal to be frivolous, he'll have to pay "just damages" there as well, which would include attorney fees.

Anonymous said...

What idiot farmer turns over his/her crop, doesn't get paid for it, and then doesn't do anything about it until the entity that didn't pay them goes bankrupt?

Anonymous said...

Mr. Barrett knows what he is doing. He is playing chess. He is trying to taint the jury pool for his federal law suit. He gets on MS.radio talk shows to sway people to be compassionate towards his side without being so called swayed. Don is a very smart man & he knows what he can get away with. I will give him 💯% credit for playing chess & not checkers!!!

Anonymous said...

I listened to the interview with Paul. No financial info was discussed.

Dismissed with costs and attorney fees to Barrett.

Anonymous said...

Don will appeal the ruling and likely prevail at the 5th Circuit.

Anonymous said...

3:34 is correct. Don won't back down. These sanctions won't have an effect on Don. And the Bank will spend enormous amounts of money trying to force Don to pay them.

Go get 'em Don!

Anonymous said...

It is remarkable the length people will go to making sure all monies are exhausted before the duped farmers get repaid.

Anonymous said...

7:56 PM

Procedurally you are mostly correct….but practically wrong.

The first appeal will cost the bank $20k…then the motion for rehearing. The motions for time or to stay and some motions for discovery into other sanctions awards….then the appeal the whole circuit and same motions. The point i made and you failed to see (perhaps my fault) is that the cost of the appeals will far outweigh the sanctions imposed in the first place. And the thing is the appellate court will not impose attorneys fees award to the bank for all the appeals.

You’ve clearly never litigated a sanctions award or litigated with Don Barrett.

Anonymous said...

It appears that first these farmers got duped by Express Grain, and now they have duped themselves by hiring Don Barrett.

Anonymous said...

Why on God’s green earth do these farmers think that by wasting dollars after dollars they will be made whole again? They were stupid enough to fall for this scam from the grain buyer, now attorneys are apparently trying to glean the remaining money.

Bada bing said...

Listen to both sides and somewhere in between is a grain of truth.

Anonymous said...

Barrett's long shot play is the only shot farmers have of getting a penny on the dollar back. They will never get any from the Colemans.


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