T. Jackson Lyons & Associates, P.A. v. Precious T. Martin, Sr. & Associates, PLLC

83 So. 3d 1284, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 38, 2012 WL 245909
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 24, 2012
DocketNo. 2011-CA-00167-SCT
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 83 So. 3d 1284 (T. Jackson Lyons & Associates, P.A. v. Precious T. Martin, Sr. & Associates, PLLC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
T. Jackson Lyons & Associates, P.A. v. Precious T. Martin, Sr. & Associates, PLLC, 83 So. 3d 1284, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 38, 2012 WL 245909 (Mich. 2012).

Opinion

[1285]*1285 ORDER

JAMES W. KITCHENS, Justice.

¶ 1. This matter came before the Court on T. Jackson Lyons & Associates, P.A.’s (Lyons) “Motion to Compel Circuit Clerk to Transmit Complete Record and to Stay Briefing Schedule,”1 which was filed on April 26, 2011. Precious T. Martin, Sr. & Associates, PLLC (Martin), has not filed a response to the motion. Barbara Dunn, Circuit Clerk of Hinds County, Mississippi, has filed a response to the motion to compel.

¶ 2. Pursuant to orders of this Court and Rule 10 of the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure, the Circuit Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi, conducted a hearing with regard to whether the appellate record is complete. The circuit court also was ordered to determine whether the circuit clerk originally prepared the appellate record in accordance with the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure, and if not, then the circuit court was to determine whether Lyons is entitled to attorney fees. [1286]*1286The circuit court conducted a hearing on August 31, 2011, and found that the record, as supplemented, was complete for purposes of this appeal. The circuit court also found that the record, as originally prepared by the circuit clerk, was not prepared in accordance with the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure. The circuit court found that the circuit clerk should bear the costs associated with supplementing the appellate record, but opined that the clerk’s failure to comply with the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure was not the product of ill will or malice. The circuit court noted that employees in the circuit clerk’s office have not been adequately trained regarding the preparation of records for appeals, and went on to observe that “the cumulative result of the lack of training and lack of continuing education regarding rule compliance leads inevitably to the mishaps presently before the court.” The circuit court further found that Lyons had failed to prove that the circuit clerk’s errors had prejudiced that firm or caused it any damages.

¶ 3. By order entered on September 12, 2011, the parties and Dunn were given an opportunity to respond to the circuit court’s findings. Lyons filed “Appellant’s Response to Circuit Court’s Findings on Remand and Motion for Further Remedial Relief.” Lyons again requested that the circuit clerk be sanctioned for failure to fulfill her responsibilities. Neither Martin nor Circuit Clerk Dunn filed responses to the circuit court’s order or to Lyons’s latest motion.

¶ 4. Rule 10 of the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure governs the content of the record on appeal and provides that “the record shall consist of designated papers and exhibits.” M.R.A.P. 10(a) (emphasis added). Rule 11 of the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure establishes certain deadlines within which the clerk is to compile and transmit the appellate record and also requiring the clerk to retain a duplicate record in the trial court. M.R.A.P. 11(d) and (e). A trial court’s ruling sanctioning its clerk for failure to comply with Rules 10 and 11 of the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure may be reviewed by this Court for an abuse of discretion. M.R.A.P. 2(b).

¶ 5. This Court’s case file, Lyons’s sworn motion to compel, the transcript of the circuit court hearing, and the circuit court’s findings of fact reveal that on January 4, 2011, Lyons filed a designation of the record with the circuit clerk. Various documents, including the briefs filed in the appeal from the county court to the circuit court, were specifically listed in the designation of the record. The circuit clerk failed timely to assemble the appellate record pursuant to Rule 11(d)(1) of the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure, and the circuit clerk failed to seek an extension of that deadline. The circuit clerk did not notify the parties that the record was complete until March 2, 2011. On March 7, 2011, Lyons examined the documents that the circuit clerk offered as the appellate record. However, the circuit clerk incorrectly had provided the entire case file to Lyons, instead of the actual record that had been prepared for transmittal to the Supreme Court. M.R.A.P. 11(d) and 10(b). On March 9, 2011, the Lyons firm filed a Rule 10(b)(5) certificate certifying that it had examined the appellate record and that .the appellate record was complete. Once Lyons had filed its Rule 10(b)(5) certificate, the circuit clerk improperly excluded a number of documents from the appellate record, even though those documents had been properly designated. The circuit clerk failed timely to transmit the complete record to the Supreme Court pursuant to Rule 11(d)(2) of the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure, and the circuit clerk did not seek an extension of [1287]*1287the applicable deadline. The circuit clerk transmitted what she purported to be the appellate record, and it was marked filed by the Clerk of the Supreme Court on April 6, 2011.2

¶ 6. On April 18, 2011, counsel for Lyons checked out the appellate record from the Clerk of the Supreme Court for use in preparing Appellant’s principal brief. Counsel discovered that the record docketed with this Court was not the same record he had inspected at the circuit clerk’s office. Several properly designated documents had not been included in the appellate record. Counsel for Lyons immediately communicated with the circuit clerk’s office, by telephone and by letter, informing that office that the complete appellate record, as designated and certified, had not been transmitted and requesting that the missing documents be transmitted to the Supreme Court immediately. Counsel also met with employees of the circuit clerk’s office in an effort to convince them to transmit the documents which had been improperly excluded from the appellate record. The circuit clerk’s office refused to transmit the documents, but offered instead to supplement the record using a procedure not consistent with the Mississippi Rules of Appellate Procedure. Counsel for Lyons was told that Lyons would have to pay the additional costs associated with this “supplementation.” Counsel for Lyons responded that if the complete record was not transmitted as soon as possible, he would be forced to file a motion with this Court to compel the transmission and that he would seek his reasonable attorney fees as a sanction. The employees of the circuit clerk’s office persisted in their refusal to transmit the documents. Counsel for Lyons waited several days to give the circuit clerk an opportunity to transmit the documents which had been improperly excluded. On April 26, 2011, finding that the documents had not been transmitted, Lyons filed its motion to compel the circuit clerk to transmit the complete, designated appellate record. In that motion Lyons also requested that the circuit clerk be ordered to pay Lyons an amount sufficient to compensate it for reasonable attorney fees incurred and made necessary by the circuit clerk’s failure to assemble and transmit the complete appellate record. Lyons noted that the circuit clerk’s refusal to correct that office’s errors caused unnecessary expense and delay.

¶ 7. At the hearing conducted in the circuit court, Loretta Wells, an employee in the circuit clerk’s office, testified that she is the only employee in that office who prepares records for appeals. She has not received any training regarding the proper assembly and transmittal of appellate records. The circuit clerk has no procedures in place to document, track, and meet deadlines.

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Bluebook (online)
83 So. 3d 1284, 2012 Miss. LEXIS 38, 2012 WL 245909, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/t-jackson-lyons-associates-pa-v-precious-t-martin-sr-miss-2012.