The big issue is the nature of the judge’s prior ruling about punitive damages– whether punitive damages are to be considered for the underlying claim in the complaint (the legal fee dispute) or whether they are to be considered relating to the bribery behavior.
An account of the hearing is after the jump.
Judge Coleman came into the courtroom. Asks if there had been an agreement. Grady Tollison says no. Tollison discusses scheduling order. Willing to stretch out discovery but do not want to lose the November trial date. Asked how much more time is needed by the court There’s some discussion about scheduling things like designation of experts.
Tollison: Put that off because there are motions to compel. Can’t do expert designation when we don’t have the discovery to look at. Have to have the accounting documents and look at accounts and don’t know when they are going to provide those documents.
There is a back and forth about expert designation and Mayo resisting having his deadline before he’d seen the plaintiff’s experts report, and Tollison resisting that he can’t produce a report without seeing the documents.
Judge: Set date for accounting expert, then date naming plaintiff expert, then reporting report, and then date for defense expert including report.
Pretrial motions are being filed by Oct. 1st, with an Oct. 8th motions hearing.
Tollison: My understanding from the last hearing is that your honor had ruled that we would be entitled to punitive damages from Mr. Scruggs as of the bribery and we would be entitled to attorneys fees for a period around the bribe. As to other defendants, we would be able to put on proof as to punitive damages as to the underlying punitive damages.
Judge: I have taken the position that the question of punitive damages ended on the filing of the complaint. If I went on and considered bribery punitive damages it would actually be sanctions instead of punitive damages and I don’t believe an award of punitive damages for sanctions is property. I want to have a hearing on 12th to go forward as to your entitlement to punitive damages and the hearing subsequent to that will be on the amount of the punitive damages.
Tollison: We agree that the financial information would only come into play after the November hearing if there were going to be punitive damages.
Mayo: Net worth information will not be produced unless the court allows punitive damages on the underlying claim.
Court: Nov. hearing, 2 issues: Amount for compensatory damages, and whether there is entitlement to recover punitive damages, leaving for a later consideration any amount of punitive damages.
Tollison: Motion to compel was granted subject to a protective order. (There has apprently been a motion to compel granted) subject to the protective order.
Discussion of scheduling of depositions.
Coleman: That all depends on who you are deposing. Some of them are not going to be available.
Tollison: They can be available the last week of July.
Mayo: I don’t know if they can be.
Tollison: The procedure of going to a federal penitentiary for a deposition is really complicated.
Court says he wants to have the schedule of depos in the order. Judge wants to know over noon hour dates for depos.
There was a discussion of mediation. Mayo: Wants to know the amount of the Nutt settlement before they go into mediation. Call has made to get authority to disclose it. Judge orders that Tollison disclose the amount for the mediation but not to the public. They approach the bench for a discussion of the amount. There is discussion of consent to voluntarily disclose it.
Adjourn to this afternoon.
Judge Coleman then said there was a concern he had. Judge Coleman said: “Judge Lackey is to be awarded as outstanding jurist of the state of Miss. at the bar convention and I have felt for him during the press coverage of this that they grouped him along with other members of the judiciary who have been convicted of accepting a bribes, leading to the implication that Judge Lackey was said to have accepted a bribe and then reporting it. Judge Coleman made clear that this bothers him. Asks Tollison if he is to be interviewed about this could he correct this implication.”
