From Friday’s order by Judge William Ray (N.D. Ga.) in Boston v. Williams:
The Plaintiffs, acting through their attorney Loletha Denise Hale (“Attorney Hale”), have filed a motion for reconsideration of the Court’s granting of summary judgment to the Defendant on the Plaintiffs’ Complaint against him. The basis for the Court’s granting summary judgment was that the Plaintiffs, through the inaction of their attorney, did not display the due diligence required under Georgia law to serve the Defendant with the Complaint within the applicable statute of limitations….
Rather than simply appealing that ruling, which the Plaintiffs have every right to do, Plaintiffs now asks the Court to reconsider it on the basis of their previous argument that the Court is biased against them due to the Court’s alleged bias against their lawyer, Attorney Hale. Their claim in that regard is centered on comments that the Court made at the oral argument on the Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment. Thus, a little review of the case history is in order.
The Plaintiffs filed a brief in opposition to the Defendant’s Motion for Summary Judgment. And, in preparing for oral argument on the Motion for Summary Judgment, the Court read that brief, wherein Attorney Hale wrote (and cited case authority for the proposition) that the issue as to whether the Plaintiffs exercised due diligence in their efforts to serve the Defendant with process was a question of fact for the jury to decide.
This argument was interesting and very strange. In the Presiding Judge’s 35 years [by “Presiding Judge,” the judge presumably means himself -EV] as a member of the State Bar of Georgia, 23 which have been as a judge at the State and Federal level, it had always been his understanding that the issue of diligence in service efforts was one for the Court, not for a jury. But, as the Plaintiffs cited case precedent for this proposition, the Presiding Judge read the cited authority to see if the Plaintiffs might be right (and whether the Presiding Judge might be wrong).
The full post here
