Opinion ID: 2550875
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Bolden Litigation

Text: Respondent's representation of Bolden began in an appeal of a civil suit against the City of Topeka (City). Bolden had purchased two houses in a tax sale. One of the homes had already been ordered to be demolished by the city. Bolden challenged the demolition order, lost, and appealed to the Shawnee County District Court. Judge Eric Rosen directed a verdict in favor of the City, finding Bolden had failed to present evidence to overturn an earlier decision by an administrative hearing officer. Before entering his appearance in the appeal of the case, Respondent attempted to obtain the record from the district court. Carol Barnes, Trial Court Clerk IV, testified that Respondent came in to check out the Bolden file in late December 2002. Because he was not an attorney of record, Barnes told Respondent he could view the file, but he could not remove it from the courthouse, pursuant to Supreme Court Rule 106 (2004 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 162). Respondent admitted he had had trouble accessing the Shawnee County District Court's case file, that he contacted Judge Rosen, and that Judge Rosen gave Respondent permission to remove the record from the courthouse. Respondent took the record the same day and returned it the next day. Several days later, he returned to the clerk's office, bringing documents he had not returned when initially bringing back the record. The file was checked, and it was determined that Exhibit J was missing. Barnes called Respondent about the missing exhibit. Barnes testified that he was defensive, denied losing the exhibit, told her that he had brought all the papers that had holes in them back, and hung up on her. In a subsequent conversation, he again became defensive, denied losing the exhibit, and hung up. At Judge Rosen's request, the record was then checked again, and it was determined that a total of five documents were missing. The clerk's office was able to create duplicates of the missing documents because they had been stored on microfilm. Respondent has maintained that he returned the file in the best condition possible, although he has admitted he was guilty of failing to restaple some of the documents. Respondent officially entered his appearance, appearing with Bolden at the Clerk of the Appellate Court's office to docket the appeal. Allison Schneider, docket clerk with the Court of Appeals, informed Respondent that he did not have the necessary paperwork to docket the appeal. Respondent became loud and angry. Schneider then asked Kathie Garman, her supervisor, to handle the situation. Respondent threatened to file a mandamus action if the appeal was not docketed. The documents were then filed even though they were deficient; Garman informed Respondent that a show cause order probably would be issued. Such an order was issued on April 1, 2003. On March 17, 2003, Respondent sent a runner to the appellate clerk's office to file his brief in the Bolden Litigation. The brief recited numerous facts not in the record and facts not keyed to the record. Oldham later testified that he called Respondent to let him know the brief would be filed but that corrections would be necessary. Respondent demanded Oldham send him a notice of denial to file the brief. Oldham again told Respondent the brief would be filed; it merely needed to be corrected. Respondent again demanded a notice of denial and threatened to file a mandamus action to force the clerk's office to accept his brief as written. The same day, Judge Johnson issued an order stating that Respondent's brief failed to comply with Supreme Court Rule 6.02(d) (2002 Kan. Ct. R. Annot. 34), requiring factual statements to be keyed to the record on appeal. Respondent's Statement of Facts contained no reference to the record. Respondent was given 30 days to file a corrected brief. On March 24, 2003, Respondent filed a Motion for Reconsideration of Order and Assignment of Costs. He asked the court to rescind its order and demanded that the costs and attorney's fees resulting from the need to seek reconsideration of this order designated chargeable to the appellee, the City of Topeka as they are incurred as a result of the actions of the office of the Clerk of The Court of Appeals [ sic ]. In this motion, Respondent also stated that he had met great resistance to filing the docketing statement. The supervisor refused to accept the docketing statement and [c]ounsel [referring to himself] then informed the supervisor that the outcome of the Clerk of Appellate court in refusing to accept the docketing statement would not be an attempt to re-file it on another day but instead an action in mandamus seeking to have the clerk perform this duty, at which point the supervisor acquiesced and accepted the docketing statement. Respondent also stated that [e]mployees of the Clerk of the Appellant Court objected to receipt of the brief because they stated in error that the brief did not contain a Statement of Facts and was not keyed to the record. In a further Memorandum of Law, Respondent stated that his allegations established a pattern and practice indicative of training and management of Kansas Judicial Branch employees that emphasizes enforcing interests of an administrative or bureaucratic nature at the expense of injuring fundamental Due Process rights of Kansas citizens who are guaranteed a republican form of government. He further accused judicial branch employees of demoralizing him and his client by consistently obstructing this appeal. On April 11, 2003, Respondent filed a Motion for Clarification of Rulings in which he compared the Kansas appellate judiciary and its staff to those who had obstructed justice in the prosecution of civil rights murders in Mississippi. He subsequently filed a Notice of Further Requirement to Amend Complaint, and finally, a Motion for Voluntary Withdraw [ sic ] and Disclosure of Costs, stating that the Clerk of the Appellate Court's bad faith prosecution of the appeal forced Bolden to withdraw. He made the following accusations in this motion: that judicial branch employees continually obstructed justice; that Carol Green, Clerk of the Appellate Courts, justified denial of access to the public record; that Bolden's due process rights were violated in this appeal by the agencies of the State of Kansas-Judicial Branch and the City of Topeka. Respondent never filed a corrected brief and voluntarily dismissed the appeal on April 21, 2003. Respondent also filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Kansas on December 20, 2002. Its allegations arose from the condemnation as well as a janitorial contract Bolden had held with the City of Topeka, which the City had declined to renew. Three days later, Respondent filed a Request For Emergency Temporary Restraining Order Hearing, alleging corruption and discrimination by the City. The TRO request was denied because it set forth no factual basis. On April 29, 2003, after the state court appeal had been dismissed, Respondent filed an Amended Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief in the federal district court. In that pleading, Respondent purported to add six defendants, including Meg Perry, a municipal employee, whom he accused of using software created data to manufacture evidence that had the effect of taking away property from James L. Bolden. When the City sought to dismiss the federal case, Respondent filed a late reply, alleging his failure to respond in a timely fashion was attributable to: (1) The necessity of filing an amicus brief on Bolden's behalf in another proceeding; and (2) the appellate court motion panel filed a lengthy and vehement ethics complaint against him. The federal district court held a scheduling conference and issued a Scheduling Order on June 26, 2003. This order required all discovery to be completed by October 31, 2003. Respondent filed a Second Amended Complaint in the federal suit on August 15, 2003. He alleged that the City refused to renew Bolden's janitorial contract in retaliation for his appeal of the condemnation and demolition of his houses. Respondent provided no factual support for this allegation. Respondent then filed a Motion for Interim Attorney's Fees. The federal district court denied this motion on August 26, 2003. Respondent filed a Motion for a More Definite Ruling regarding this denial, stating that the City of Topeka may not be aware that regardless of the resolution of the present case . . . the law of Kansas and the United States requires the City as a recipient of federal funding to repay Bolden for his attorney fees and court costs. No citations to supporting facts or law appeared in this motion. The federal district court issued an order on October 14, 2003, denying the Motion for a More Definite Ruling and holding that the fees motion was completely without merit. The court also noted that the motions had not been filed correctly. Despite repeated attempts by the appellate clerk's office designed to encourage Respondent to withdraw and refile the motions, he had failed to do so. On November 13, 2003, Respondent filed a motion to extend the discovery deadline to January 24, 2004. The discovery period had ended on October 31, pursuant to the earlier scheduling order. Respondent argued that he had no reason to know before [November 13, 2003] that an extension would be required. The court responded that it was baffled by this statement. Respondent had responded to discovery propounded by the defense on October 24, and he had served his own discovery requests on October 30. The court found that Respondent had failed to comply with the federal rules of civil procedure, with local rules of the court, and with the scheduling order. The court also found inexcusable neglect and denied the motion to extend the discovery deadline. Respondent did not seek to serve the six new defendants he had named in his Second Amended Complaint until November 19, 2003, 11 months after filing his original complaint, and 2 days before pretrial conference. At the pretrial conference, United States Magistrate Judge James O'Hara considered whether the Second Amended Complaint should be dismissed because of Respondent's failure to obtain proper service on the six new defendants. Respondent admitted that he did not know he had to serve the individual defendants at all, much less within the time limit set forth in Rule 4 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He argued that service was not necessary because: (1) Kansas statutes imputed knowledge of lawsuits against a municipality to all employees of the municipality; (2) the defendants had already entered an appearance; (3) the defendants had actual notice of the lawsuit. Judge O'Hara, in his December 2, 2003, recommendation and report to Judge Kathryn Vratil, advocated dismissal of the Second Amended Complaint without prejudice. He stated that Respondent did not understand that the federal case was a wholly separate case and had not been transferred from state to federal court. Judge O'Hara further held that Respondent's ignorance did not amount to good cause for additional time to obtain service. Judge O'Hara further stated that Respondent failed to exercise even a modicum of diligence or to conduct a scintilla of legal research with regard to the requirements of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. He continued: In closing, the undersigned wishes to express some words of caution to both plaintiff and Mr. Landrith. This case has been handled in an extremely haphazard manner. The court is mindful of and sympathetic to plaintiff's statement during the recent pretrial conference . . . that no attorney other than Mr. Landrith was willing to take plaintiff's case and that plaintiff is therefore thankful for Mr. Landrith's loyalty. But plaintiff would be prudent to bear in mind that loyalty and competence are different qualities. Stated more directly, the court is deeply troubled by Mr. Landrith's apparent incompetence. The pleadings he has filed [citations omitted], and his non-responsive, rambling, ill-formed legal arguments during the pretrial conference, suggest that he is not conversant with even the most basic aspects of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. The court doubts that Mr. Landrith has any better grasp of the substantive law that applies to this case. Based on what transpired at the pretrial conference, plaintiff appears more articulate that Mr. Landrith. Plaintiff may be better served by representing himself without any attorney if indeed Mr. Landrith is the only attorney willing to take the case. In response to Judge O'Hara's recommendation, Respondent filed an Objection To Magistrate's Report and Recommendation that stated: The plaintiff finds the report . . . a written manifestation of the magistrate's continuing bias and Magistrate O'Hara has consistently dismissed material information on the law and facts relevant to this case, . . . has become embroiled in the controversy and he has demonstrated a disrespect for the plaintiff's counsel. Respondent also alleged that Judge O'Hara communicated an utter disrespect toward plaintiff's counsel, repeatedly asking where he went to school, and forgetting the answer, asking if he had even had a class in civil procedure and asking if he had passed. On February 2, 2004, Judge Vratil dismissed the six new defendants. She also dismissed that portion of the case arising from the condemnation because it had been litigated in state court. The case went to trial only on the janitorial contract claim, with Bolden represented by Dennis Hawver. Respondent remained involved in the case, however, filing various motions, responses to objections, jury instructions, and, after the trial, a notice of appeal. As of this writing, the appeal was set for oral argument in the Tenth Circuit on November 17, 2005. Although Respondent was the attorney designated to appear at that oral argument, he had not filed the form required to confirm his anticipated appearance. Sherri Price, Assistant City Attorney for the City of Topeka, filed the disciplinary complaint arising out of the Bolden Litigation on December 3, 2003. In response to Sherri Price's complaint, Respondent accused her of ethics violations and of taking deliberate actions to deprive Mr. Bolden and myself of the resources to prosecute his case. He called Judge O'Hara's pretrial conference a surprise hearing. He accused Shawnee County District Attorney Robert Hecht's office of violations of the law and ethical misconduct, and accused Assistant U.S. Attorney David Plinsky of coaching defendants to deny valid service of process.