Ingram v. Allred

119 So. 3d 1176, 2012 WL 5077145, 2012 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 279
CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedOctober 19, 2012
Docket2110636
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 119 So. 3d 1176 (Ingram v. Allred) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ingram v. Allred, 119 So. 3d 1176, 2012 WL 5077145, 2012 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 279 (Ala. Ct. App. 2012).

Opinion

BRYAN, Judge.

Angie Ingram, the attorney of record for the plaintiff in a civil action (“the underly[1177]*1177ing action”) in the small-claims division of the Walker District Court (“the district court”), appeals from a judgment finding her in contempt and sentencing her to 60 days in jail. We reverse and remand with instructions.

Ingram’s office is in Jefferson County, but she represents creditors in collection actions throughout the state. During the last several years, she has represented creditors in a number of collection actions in the district court. In May 2011, the district-court judge who had been presiding in those actions (“the trial judge”) ordered Ingram to appear at a show-cause hearing on May 20, 2011. That show-cause hearing related to actions she was handling in general rather than the underlying action in particular. At that show-cause hearing, the trial judge stated, in pertinent part:

“THE COURT: Over the last two- and-a-half years there’s a lot of times that ya’ll either haven’t had anybody here, or you have local attorneys, for whatever reason, and they don’t know what cases they are here on, they don’t know what’s going on with the cases. And then what I do — well, what I started out doing is continuing those because I figured, well, mistakes happen and somebody got mixed up somewhere. As it continued to happen, I dismissed those cases. If there was a good reason why you missed, I would consider reinstating those cases.
“Now what I’m seeing is, nobody shows up. I have people that take off work, people that hire lawyers, they’re here, and nobody is here on your side. I dismiss them and then I get a slew of motions to reinstate, which is further a waste of my time. You know, I’m ruling on everything two or three times because ya’ll can’t be bothered to come up here, and I’m very unhappy about that, Ms. Ingram.”

Ingram explained that she had arranged for a local attorney to appear on several occasions in the district court but that he had proved unreliable and that she would not be relying on him in the future. Ingram also apologized to the trial judge.

The following colloquy then occurred:

“THE COURT: Well, I’m not necessarily—
“MS. INGRAM: And it’s not—
“THE COURT: — casting stones at anybody. And I didn’t bring you over here to throw you in jail or anything like that. I don’t think that’s appropriate. I just want you and I to be on the same page on this.
“MS. INGRAM: I understand.
“THE COURT: If this continues to happen, here’s where I am at. I want you to know so there’s no misunderstanding.
“Particularly, in cases where I have other attorneys that are here and there’s nobody here from your office, I’m going to entertain motions for attorney’s fees on those cases. I’m going to start fining you if I feel like somebody has come here. A lot of these people can ill-afford to miss a day of work anyway. And if they take off work and come up here and there’s nobody up here to prosecute that case, there’s going to be some punitive damages — ”

The transcript of the May 20, 2011, show-cause hearing does not indicate that the trial judge either found Ingram to be in contempt or ordered her not to file a motion to reinstate an action if the action had been dismissed due to her failure to appear at a hearing or docket call. Moreover, the record before us does not contain a written order either finding Ingram in contempt based on acts or omissions that [1178]*1178had occurred on or before May 20, 2011, or ordering her not to file a motion to reinstate an action if the action had been dismissed due to her failure to appear at a hearing or docket call.

Subsequent to the May 20, 2011, show-cause hearing, the trial judge set the underlying action on his January 12, 2012, trial docket. On December 23, 2011, Ingram filed an application for the entry of a default against the defendant in the underlying action for failure to answer or otherwise defend, a motion for a default judgment against the defendant, and a supporting affidavit establishing the amount the defendant owed the plaintiff. Ingram did not appear at the trial judge’s January 12, 2012, trial docket; at a show-cause hearing on March 21, 2012, she testified that she had not appeared at the January 12, 2012, trial docket because she believed the underlying action would be disposed of by the trial judge’s granting the motion for a default judgment she had filed on December 23, 2011. On January 23, 2012, the trial judge entered a judgment dismissing the underlying action. That judgment stated: “Neither party appeared in court. Case dismissed for lack of prosecution.”

On January 27, 2012, Ingram filed a motion to reinstate the underlying action on the ground that the application for a default, motion for a default judgment, and supporting affidavit had been filed before the January 12, 2012, trial docket. On February 17, 2012, the trial judge entered an order stating:

“Motion to reinstate filed by [the plaintiff in the underlying action] is hereby set for hearing on March 5, 2012 at 9:00 a.m. The hearing will be held on the issues of reinstatement and also to give plaintiffs counsel an opportunity to show cause why she should not be held in contempt for repeated failure to appear in this court.”

Ingram neither appeared at the March 5, 2012, hearing nor gave the trial judge advance notice that she would not be appearing at that hearing. At the March 21, 2012, show-cause hearing, Ingram testified that she had had matters in four actions in the Jefferson District Court and the Jefferson Circuit Court scheduled for the morning of March 5, 2012, and that she had appeared in those actions that morning. She further testified as follows:

“Q. [By Ingram’s attorney:] Okay. But you are not here to tell the [trial] judge that you didn’t appear in his court [on March 5, 2012,] specifically because you appeared in those cases [in Jefferson County], are you?
“A. No.
“Q. It just happens to be a fact that you had four other eases in another county that you handled that day?
“A. Yes.
“Q. When you saw notice of the show cause hearing on March 5th that was entered by [the trial judge], what was your reaction?
“A. I mean, I saw that he set the motion to reinstate. I already believed that it would just be denied, you know. I just have been at a loss as to figure out what it is that I am not doing in your courtroom, Your Honor. I don’t have this problem anywhere in the rest of the state but here. And I have no idea how to fix it. And I am still sitting here listening today, and I still don’t know how to fix it. I do everything within my power to manage my office, my dockets, and I don’t know what else to do.
“THE COURT: Can I ask what conflict provisions that you took, what steps that you took to notify me that you had other cases set?
[1179]*1179“MS. INGRAM: I didn’t. I just — I just shut down. I just didn’t know what else to do. I mean, I have been here. I have tried to do — and I have been respectful to you.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
119 So. 3d 1176, 2012 WL 5077145, 2012 Ala. Civ. App. LEXIS 279, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ingram-v-allred-alacivapp-2012.