Dalkon Shield Trust v. Fields (In re A.H. Robins Co.)

219 B.R. 135, 1998 Bankr. LEXIS 453
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Virginia
DecidedApril 7, 1998
DocketNo. 85-01307-R
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 219 B.R. 135 (Dalkon Shield Trust v. Fields (In re A.H. Robins Co.)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dalkon Shield Trust v. Fields (In re A.H. Robins Co.), 219 B.R. 135, 1998 Bankr. LEXIS 453 (E.D. Va. 1998).

Opinion

[137]*137 MEMORANDUM

MERHIGE, District Judge.

This contested matter is before the Court upon several Motions and pleadings filed by unrepresented Daikon Shield claimant Ellen Paulette Mitchell Fields (“Ms. Fields”). These proceedings have involved the energies of several parties and- courts. This Memorandum will therefore dispose of all outstanding matters relating to Ms. Fields.

I.

A. Ms. Fields Concluded Her Daikon Shield Claim Through Arbitration

Ms. Fields chose arbitration under § E.5(a) of the Claims Resolution Facility (“CRF”) to resolve her Daikon Shield Claim. The arbitrator chosen by Ms. Fields an4 the Daikon Shield Claimants Trust (the “Trust”), Jeffrey O. Bramlett, presided over the full evidentiary hearing on Ms. Fields’ claim in Atlanta, Georgia, on December 12-13, 1994. Ms. Fields was represented by counsel at that hearing. In his written decision issued on January 17, 1995, Arbitrator Bramlett denied Ms. Fields’ claim because Ms. Fields had never used a Daikon Shield IUD. Instead, she had used a Lippes Loop, an IUD made not by A.H. Robins but by another company and for which the Trust has no liability.

B. The Various Matters Before the Court

Although Ms. Fields had the Arbitration Rules and must have known of the limited judicial review available under Rule XIV.B after an arbitrator has decided a Daikon Shield Claim and that such review could be sought only in this Court and not elsewhere, after the arbitrator denied her claim, she launched an attack in Atlanta on nearly every person who had ever come in contact with her claim. On March 21, 1995, Ms. Fields, by that time pro se, filed a complaint against the Trust and eleven other defendants in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, Civil Action No. 95-CV-8222-WBH, suing for treason and other claims and seeking $30 million in damages and punitive damages.

The Trust learned of Ms. Fields’ Georgia suit when the Atlanta court, according to its Local Rules, began allowing her to serve her Complaint in September 1995. On September 13, 1995, the Trust filed a Motion To Enforce Plan (Docket No. 28216) with this Court, asking it to order Ms. Fields to dismiss her Atlanta suit. On October 10, 1995, the Trust filed a Motion with the Atlanta court asking it to dismiss Ms. Fields’ suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

After many filings in Atlanta by Ms. Fields and others, by Order of March 21, 1996, the Atlanta court transferred Ms. Fields’ Atlanta suit to this Court. An Order of April 25, 1996 (Docket No. 29186) lodged the suit with the Bankruptcy Clerk as a matter related to the Robins bankruptcy case. The April 25 Order stayed all other filings in this Court by any of the parties involved in the case, except Ms. Fields or the Trust.

1. The Atlanta Suit .

The Atlanta case brought with it the following complaints or motions:

(1) Fields’ Complaint: filed by Ms. Fields on March 21, 1995, against the Trust; the Private Adjudication Center at Duke University, which serves as the Neutral Third Party for Daikon Shield arbitration; Karen Deming, outside counsel to the Trust in Atlanta, Georgia, who defended the Trust in Ms. Fields’ arbitration case, and her law firm, Troutman Sanders L.L.P.; the arbitrator, Jeffrey Bramlett, and his firm, Bonderant, Mixson and Elmore; the Rossville Health Department; Dr. Leroy Sherrill; Dr. W.D. Crawley; the Floyd County Health Department; “M. •Howell” at the Floyd County Health Department; and Ms. Fields’ own former attorneys, Farless & Newton. In this Complaint, Ms. Fields alleged: treason, mail fraud, withholding of evidence, manufacturing of evidence, misleading and misrepresentation of facts, “issues and intentions or interest,” malpractice corruption, misapplication of plaintiffs mental health records, racial and economical discrimination, mis[138]*138carriage of justice, and obstruction of justice.
(2) Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss: filed September 6; 1995, by N. Karen Deming and her firm, Troutman Sanders LLP, for failure to state a claim.
(3) Rule 12(b)(6) Motion to Dismiss: filed September 26, 1995, by Jeffrey O. Bramlett and Bondurant, Mixson & El-more, C.J., for failure to state a claim. On September 27, 1995, Ms. Fields filed a “Motion” asking the Atlanta Court to “uphold” the suit there. Though called a Motion, this pleading was only a response to the Deming/Troutman and Bramlett/Bondurant Motions to Dismiss, as Ms. Fields was asking that those Motions be denied. It added no requests on which any ruling is required.
(4) Motion to Dismiss: filed October 10, 1995, by the Trust, seeking dismissal of Ms. Fields’ Atlanta suit for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.
(5) Motions for Investigation and Transfer: filed on December 8, 1995, in which Ms. Fields moved the Atlanta court to:
(a) Order a transfer of Plaintiff Daikon Shield Case DS13843 to the District Court of Atlanta.
(b) Request an investigation into the “PLAN.”
(c) Request an investigation of the Trust’s handling of Plaintiff Case and other Daikon Shield cases.
(d) Request an investigation of Duke University’s financial contributions.
On January 2, 1996, Ms. Fields supplemented this Motion with a pleading asking for an investigation of: attorneys for the Trust and if they represented Robins, Hugh Davis, Irwin Lerner, AHP, or Aetna; the agreement between Robins and AHP; the entire “PLAN of the sixth amended and restated Disclosure Statement”; Aet-na Life & Casualty and its-subsidiaries and affiliates; all arbitrators to see if they represented Robins, Davis, Lerner, AHP and affiliates, or Aetna Life and affiliates; the Trust’s attorneys’ and arbitrators’ “relationship (race) with minority claimants and minority cases that they have been a part of during their practice as an attorney.”
(6)Motion to Vacate Arbitration Decision: in a “Response” filed by Ms. Fields on December 26, 1995, Ms. Fields asked the Atlanta court for “relief from dismissal of her lawsuit under the federal arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. §§ 1 that this judicial review be by a district court in the jurisdiction where the award (this case being decision) by an arbitrator is made, sections 9, 10, and 11.”

2. The Richmond Case

The Richmond action begun by the Trust against Ms. Fields contains the following pending Motions:

(1) Motion to Enforce Plan: filed on September 13, 1995 (Docket No. 28216) by the Trust, seeking an Order directing Ms. Fields to comply with the Plan by dismissing her Atlanta suit.
(2) Motion to Vacate Arbitration Decision, Etc.: in a “Response” filed by Ms. Fields on September 20, 1995 (Docket No. 28311-A), she asked:

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Bluebook (online)
219 B.R. 135, 1998 Bankr. LEXIS 453, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dalkon-shield-trust-v-fields-in-re-ah-robins-co-vaed-1998.