Opinion ID: 2259440
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Mr. Mundy's Retainer

Text: The trial court found that Nixon asked Jemison to pay the attorneys' fees for the legal proceedings against NBC. Dr. Nixon had earlier advised the Executive Board of the Alabama State Convention that it would not have to pay any money toward this litigation. Following Nixon's conversation with Jemison on September 28, 1994, Jemison sent $9,500 to Mr. Mundy in Washington. The court found that there were no documents or discussions supporting Nixon's claim that the retainer fee was a personal loan to him from Jemison, and ruled that the payment of the fee by Dr. Jemison to the attorney representing his purported adversary was improper. Appellants continue to assert that this money was simply a personal loan to Mr. Mundy. They contend that there was no evidence that either Dr. Jemison or Ms. Fleming was in control of Mr. Mundy and his handling of the lawsuit. We disagree. The evidence showed that Dr. Jemison wired the money directly to Mr. Mundy, knowing that Mundy was about to file the complaint and the TRO application. Suits in which one side pays both sides' fees are presumed to be collusive because one of the parties has dominated the conduct of the suit by payment of the fees of both. United States v. Johnson, 319 U.S. 302, 304, 63 S.Ct. 1075, 87 L.Ed. 1413 (1943). There was, as the trial court found, no evidence to rebut this presumption, and thus the court did not err in holding that the payment was improper.