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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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COA 263310 TRACHELLE C YOUNG V FLINT ... - State of Michigan
publicdocs.courts.mi.gov:81/opinions/final/.../20061228_c263310_33_263310.opn.p...
Dec 28, 2006 - Plaintiff, Trachelle C. Young, appeals as of right an order entering declaratory ... Plaintiff's complaint alleged that the Flint City Council ... suggested that means she can appoint the lawyer who represents the City Council.
From the Court of Appeals case:
"Defendant (Trachelle Young) argued and the Trial Court agreed, that when the CLO (Chief legal Officer) sues the City Council on behalf of the Mayor or some other entity within the City, a conflict of interest is created. The core of the argument is that the CLO cannot represent or direct the representation of the City if the CLO is bringing a lawsuit against the City, as such a situation would put the CLO effectively on both sides of the litigation."...
"As ClO, plaintiffs obligations include directing the legal affairs of the City, appointing all assistants, serving as the attorney for the City, directing the management of all legal matters in which the City is interested, and either personally or through assistants, representing the interests of the City in all actions or proceedings by or against the City or its officers and employees. At issue here is what happens to those obligations when the two principal entities within the City, the Mayor and the City Council , end up on opposite sides in litigation. Per MRPC 1.13, plaintiff represents the City itself, as an organization, rather than any of its component parts. reading the Rules and the Charter together, logically plaintiff cannot personally represent one entity within the City against another, because she cannot represent both parties. However, Plaintiff is still bound by her obligation to direct the legal affairs of the City, meaning both the mayor and the Council. The clear alternative is to select and retain independent legal counsel for both parties. Only by declining to personally represent either party, while in good faith choosing counsel for each can plaintiff comply with both the MRPC and the Charter."
Last edited by untanglingwebs on Wed Sep 21, 2016 8:22 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:29 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Flint City Council wants City Attorney Trachelle Young booted from office
Print Marjory Raymer | mraymer@mlive.com By Marjory Raymer | mraymer@mlive.com
on March 10, 2008 at 10:51 PM, updated March 11, 2008 at 11:31 AM
FLINT, Michigan - Long a lightning rod of Mayor Don Williamson, City Attorney Trachelle Young is in the hot seat with City Council calling for her ouster and a circuit judge questioning her ethics.
City Council voted 5-2 on Monday to censure Young and ask Williamson to remove her from office because they said she too often sides with the mayor instead of independently serving the best interests of the city -- and because she's spearheaded several lawsuits against City Council.
"I think the resolution speaks for itself," said City Council President Carolyn Sims, who introduced the resolution. "She represents a conflict of interest when she brings about lawsuits against the Council and councilmembers."
Williamson said little will come of the Council's vote.
"They don't have the authority to (remove Young)," Williamson said. "After all this time you would think they would let the mayor do my job and them do theirs. ... The city attorney is my appointment and they don't have anything to do with that. They don't have to approve it.
"Basically, they are just blowing hot air."
The Council action came on the heals of a public scolding Monday morning by Circuit Court Judge Geoffrey L. Neithercut, who criticized Young for not appointing an independent attorney to represent the Council in a legal battle over Williamson's attempt to lay off personnel in the city clerk and Council offices.
He called the action a possible "ethical violation."
"If I were Trachelle Young, I'd be worried about my law license right now," said Neithercut, who postponed deciding on the dispute until Friday.
After the court hearing, Young denied she'd done anything unethical or even that she had refused to name an attorney for the City Council and said Neithercut did not fully understand what had happened.
The issues underscore Young's central role in Williamson's sometimes controversial reign - which already prompted Sims to request that Young's conduct be reviewed by the state attorney grievance board.
Young has filed several lawsuits against the City Council, including as an attempts to force them to hire auditors and a counter lawsuit when City Council sued to try to get Williamson to name a permanent police chief. They've also bickered about the interpretation of the charter and whether Young was spending city time promoting "American Idol" contestant LaKisha Jones.
Young could not be reached for comment on Council action Monday evening, but after appearing in court earlier in the day she defended herself after Neithercut's criticism.
"I have never refused to appoint them an attorney," Young said.
She said there had been some back-and-forth letter writing between her and Sims over the layoffs and appointing an attorney. She said some issues had not been resolved, so that's why an attorney had not yet been appointed.
When asked whether she would go along with the Council's wishes and appoint Flint attorney Loyst Fletcher, Young said she would have to "analyze" their request.
"They (Council members) don't have the right to appoint whomever they want," Young said.
Councilwoman Sandy Hill said the ongoing spat between Young and City Council could be lessened if both sides used a little more common sense.
"If each side would just give a little bit, we wouldn't be fighting all the time like this," Hill said.
Hill said Young has been too stubborn, especially about letting the City Council have legal representation, but the Council has also been demonizing Young.
"According to the majority of Council members, Trachelle can't do anything right," Hill said.
Fletcher represented the Council at Monday's hearing over whether the administration had the right to lay off employees who work for the City Clerk and the Council -- even though he had not been appointed by Young.
Fletcher said "there's no question" that Young is trampling on the rights of the Council.
"In my 25 years of working with the city attorney's office, I have never seen a city attorney refuse to appoint an independent counsel," Fletcher said.
Staff writer Kristyn Peterson contributed to this article.
flintfan32 Mar 11, 2008
City council must have better things to do. They need to answer why every city office and branch of gov't has reduced spending by 10% except them?
Look how many lawsuits they have brought? The "infamous 5" council people have as their agenda to stir up as much as they can to try & set up a recall of the mayor. That's been their stated purpose since he was re-elected. It's about time those 5 tried to achieve a higher purpose than all the wasting of taxpayer's money. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:38 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Judge Neithercutt appears to be "pissed" that the Court of Appeals reversed his opinion so he decides to spit some venom. At least he understood Young's role, while Judge Farah still thinks he can appoint attorneys for the council.
Young survived all of the venom the Council threw at her. There was no attorney discipline meted out.
But she was not alone. Mike Joliet had to suffer vicious accusations, but not as many as Young.
I have to admit Peter Bade probably deserved some abuse as he went to extreme lengths to protect Walling.
During a council hearing, his staff leaped to their feet like bunnies and ran to shelter Bade during his testimony . Bade admitted he concealed the loss of the Department of Energy Grant and said it was attorney client privilege". By Charter he represented both the council and the administration.
Bade also sent one of his minions to Ciruit Court to block the Civil Service Commission hearings. Yuille was absent and the two Judges who were in place of Yuille's absence rejected the motion. Told by Bade to "find someone to sign it", the Assistant City Attorney managed to get Judge Farah to sign the motion.
The public was not allowed to hear about Eason's role in firing the whistleblowers who complained about Kate Fields getting the DOE grant over a company who had been selected by the administration. That company had over 15 years of experience. Fields had just formed her company and cited her experience as having built 2 energy-efficient homes.
In Court Yuille expressed his anger that court policies and procedures had not been followed, but no one was disciplined. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:57 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| Now City Attorney Stacey Oakes has the council at her throat. Her expression during these meetings show she can't believe the garbage that spews from their mouths and the behavior of council. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 8:59 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The City Attorney needs to control the budget and that is done by negotiating attorney fees in these cases. You can't have council going out and hiring law firms that charge excessive fees.After all these fees come out of a fund that ws set by council.
Watch for more council shenanigans, as they took Attorney Young's office, most her budget and Kincaid laughed in council about how he was attempting to cripple her ability to conduct her office by the charter. ouncil though they alone could run city hall then and not much seems to have changed. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:06 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 9:23 am |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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A good reason for the City Attorney to select counsel for both sides and negotiate their price:
Greg doll v City of Flint Case NO. 00-67045-CL Neithercutt
FINDINGS
........However, the Court also finds that Defendant counsel padded its billings to its client and caused unnecessary hours to be exercised in the defense of this case. Therefore, the Court must subtract from some of the requested hours submitted by Defendants' atorneys. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 5:44 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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The Court begins by recognizing Defendant attorney's charges at $115 hourly to be reasonable. It is common for attorneys to cite the Michigan Bar Association Attorney Fee to justify their fees. That study is unrealistic when applied to Genesee County. However, Defendant attorneys charge rate is entirely reasonable in this case.
In its efforts to justify attorney fee sanctions defense counsel submits these arguments:
1. This was a complicated case that took two weeks to try before the jury. In response the Court complained for months before the trial that the issues were mundane and overworked. While the pre-trial issues were sometimes novel, the two-week trial itself was quite average. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 5:55 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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2. Defendant argues selection required special jury questionnaires due to Plaintiff's focus on the political statements of the recently recalled Mayor.The Court finds that whole jury selection exercise by defense counsel was a frivolous one. The City of flint was being sued-not its mayor. It was not necessary and was done only for the sake of padding defense counsel's business hours to charge its impoverished client.
3. Defendnt argues more work involved by plaintiff's three amended complaints. Amended complaints are quite common, in fact, the issues were ay-hand and well understood from the point of offer of judgement to trial so that argument is frivolous. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:03 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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4. Defendant argues it was necessary to prepare and file over a dozen motions in limine based upon Plaintiff's various theories of liability. The Court repeatedly told defense counsel that it was wasting the Court's time with many of its motions in limine.
5. Defendant argues the Genesee County Circuit Court docket for this case shows 702 docket entries through June 21, 2002.Of course that was because Defendant spent more time on this case than was necessary to provide a defense for its impoverished client. That applies also to Defendant's argument of 14 orders being entered pursuant to motions in limine, over 40 separate orders entered by the Court during litigation, the parties appeared dozens of times for hearings before the Court. This Court repeatedly told defense counsel that its actions were unnecessary to adequately represent its client. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:15 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Let it be clear this Court believes Defendant, City of Flint, deserves sanctions for it's defense of this obviously weak lawsuit. However,the Court does criticize counsel for the City of Flint for overworking the file and padding its billings to its client unnecessarily. Counsel repeatedly complained that Plaintiff was "making a mountain out of a molehill". Then Defendant counsel indeed built a mountain.
As an example, defense counsel in its submission of billings cites 52.25 hours worked on jury instruction time. The case was scheduled for trial a couple of times before trial actually occurred. Defendant repeatedly billed its client for the same jury preparations over and over again. The Defendant counsel wasted his client's money by filing a motion and bringing oral argument requesting the privilege of participating in voir dire of the jury. Any local attorney knows this that this trial judge allows allows trial counsel voir dire and defense counsel could easily have made a one-tenth of an hour telephone call to the judge's office to inqure about the Court's policy. Instead Defense counsel brought a frivolous motion so he could charge his client for more billing. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:29 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Defense counsel caused this Court to conduct two hearings on the jury venue and unnecessarily billed his client to study the racial make-up of the Genesee County jury. Any local attorney knows that this particular trial judge is famous for requiring the "Halo Burger" juries. This Court is published nationwide for pulling jurors off the street to guarantee racial diversity. This Court has on two occasions conducted hearings challenging the jury venire and determined the jury selection method to be reasonable. Instead of studying those activities, and without any new information, defendant counsel wasted the Court's time by bringing up the issue again and charging its client for 4.50 hours of work.
Defendant counsel wasted the Court's time and its client's money requesting a change of venue. Counsel argued this was a high-profile case involving the City of Flint and its mayor and hat anybody on the venire would be prejudiced. He bills his clients to read media accounts of this action unnecessarily. Flint routinely has high profile cases and yet fair juries are chosen, This was not an important case to jurors. Regardless, he bills his client and wastes this Court's time for a change of venue only to learn in voir dire that only two jurors in the entire venire had a vague recollection of this case. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 6:48 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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| A simple exercise of comparing the work hours of Plaintiff and Defendant is the final proof to the Court that defense counsel has over billed his client. The form of Keller, Thoma, Schwarze, DuBay & Katz claims to have worked 1,095 hours on this case from the point of judgement through trial while the Plaintiff firm of Tom R. Pabst, P.C. submits an hourly activity of 226.5 hours. Thorough lawyering is admirable. However, when the Plaintiff spend 226.5 hours litigating this case and Defendant spends 1,095 hours, it is obvious that he defendant client has suffered from its lawyer;s zealousness of hour padding. In the future, the City of Flint should consider finding different trial counsel who will prepare for and try a case in a more realistic manner without charging the city such a high fee. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:01 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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Ther are other more routine subtractions which the Court will make. Defendant has requested 21.5 hours for the cost of working with the proposed witness, Dr. Blunt. While it was reasonable for Defendant to spend some time early in its trial preparation with this witness, since the person never testified it is not appropriate to bill for 21.5 hours. It is not appropriate to charge the actual cost of that witness' video deposition.
When oral arguments were conducted about sanctions the Court expressed its curiosity about a $42,000 billing from Defendant counsel's associates and partners. The Court said it would strike that work unless Defendant could present proof of the work of the other members of his firm and the Court has been waiting for months. Since no supplemental information has been provided, the Court will order that the $42,000 fee be stricken.
Defendant City of Flint, will reduce from its mediation sanction request 113.23 hours at $115 hourly rate. Defendant shall eliminate the video deposition charge pursuant to Stevens V Hogue, 85 Mich App 185. Defendant shall recalculate its snctions billing and submit an order to the Court. |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:16 pm |
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untanglingwebs
El Supremo
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In addition, since the Court has found that defense counsel has overworked the file, participated in frivolous litigation exercises and padded his billing to the City of flint, the firm of Keller, Thoma, Schwarze, Dubay & Katz, P.C. shall reimburse the City of Flint for 40 hours spent on jury instruction time, 20 hours spent on its motion to change venue and 7,5 hours meeting with Mayor Stanley's defense counsel. The Court asserts other efforts at overbilling were committed, but limits its order of refund to the easily identifiable padding. This was shameful lawyering reminiscent of law office politics in a Grisham novel. While the trial result was successful, it does not merit gouging an impoverished client.
Dated June 25, 2003 |
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Fri Sep 09, 2016 7:26 pm |
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