Mobile judge enters $1.2 million judgment against another judge
By Chip Drago
Mobile Bay Times
A Mobile judge Friday entered a $1.2 million judgment against Circuit Judge Stuart C. Dubose of Clarke County.
Mobile County Circuit Judge John Lockett ruled against Dubose in a legal malpractice suit over the handling of a will and a large estate by Dubose, who was then in a private legal practice. The development occurs as the latest among a welter of controversies involving the newly-elected judge in recent years.
Embroiled in an estate dispute in which he both drafted the will and was made its executor, Dubose had reached a settlement last fall with Ms. Cheryl Weaver, the sole beneficiary of the approximately $2.5 million estate of the late Joseph J. Sullivan. Weaver had sued Dubose for legal malpractice.
Sullivan's longtime friend and caregiver, Weaver approached Dubose to write a will for the ailing Sullivan. Dubose did so, having never met with Sullivan to discuss it. Ms. Weaver took the will to Sullivan who signed it and died not long afterwards.
Again meeting with Dubose, Weaver agreed to the lawyer receiving a percentage fee of the value of the estate if the will and estate were contested.
The matter was, of course, disputed.
First, Sullivan's relatives objected and their grievances were settled out of court.
Next, Dubose and Weaver, now co-executors of the estate, fell out. The case was removed from Washington County to Mobile County. It, too, was settled confidentially out-of-court shortly before trial in October, but not before Lockett determined that a $1.2 million legal fee, about 40 percent of the estate value of $2.5 million, was "reasonable and necessary" and allowed Dubose to continue as the estate executor.
Complicating an already complicated matter, in June, Dubose had won the Democratic nomination for a seat on the bench of the state's First Judicial Circuit.
Dubose beat Chris Bailey, another Jackson attorney, in a raucously contentious campaign. Dubose won by fewer than 100 votes out of 19,000 cast in the three-county circuit. Nearly to a lawyer, the circuit's legal community lined up against Dubose, an apparent political miscalculation as much of the electorate rallied to a candidate so uniformly disliked by lawyers.
And, in Clarke, Washington and Choctaw counties, the Democratic nomination remains, as they say, tantamount to victory. In Dubose's case, ultimate victory seemed beyond tantamount and a mere formality since the GOP failed to field a candidate.
However, an anonymous complaint with the Alabama Bar Association over Dubose's professional conduct in handling the Sullivan estate presented an obstacle. The threat to Dubose assuming the judgeship seemed to be settled though when the bar accepted his "conditional guilty plea," suspending Dubose's law license for 45 days beginning Nov. 8, the day after the general election when he would formally lay claim to his perch on the 1st Circuit's bench. The suspension would have ended in late December, a few weeks before he took office on Jan. 15.
The arrangement had the effect of threading the needle so that Dubose would hold his license to practice law both on Election Day and on the day when he would take the oath-of-office.
But the Alabama Supreme Court rejected the deal.
The state's highest court reviews all disciplinary actions taken by the bar against attorneys and approves or rejects the actions. Eight of the court's nine justices found the penalty too lenient.
The bar was directed to revisit the situation with Dubose.
With its unusual if not unprecedented circumstances, the issue remains pending before the bar's disciplinary committee, according to Tony McLain, general counsel for the state bar association.
Can the bar discipline a sitting judge for transgressions committed when he was an attorney in private practice? Does the Judicial Inquiry Commission have jurisdiction over the actions of a judge before he takes the bench?
In the interim, Dubose has taken the oath of office and assumed the duties of a circuit judge.
Dubose's early judicial career has exhibited a concern for courtroom security beyond tradition in Clarke County.
The judge appealed to the county commission to fund a security guard who would ensure that "electronic devices" were barred from the courtroom.
"Cell phones, laptops, (and) other electronic devices are used to make and detonate bombs, and I don't intend for that to happen in my courtroom," The South Alabamian quoted Dubose in the judge's appeal to the county commission.
Dubose has also raised eyebrows in the community as he reportedly appears occasionally in public outside his courtroom attired in his judicial robes.
In his order against Sullivan's estate and "Stuart Dubose, individually, jointly and severally" for $1.19 million, Lockett wrote:
"The court will not recite the troubled history that gets us to this point. Suffice it to say that on Oct. 2, 2006, on the date this matter was set for trial, the parties announced they had reached a settlement of their disputes and read into the record a settlement agreement. Now, 10 months later, the matter is not resolved ..."
Parties and attorneys in the controversy are constrained from speaking about the case because of confidentiality required by the settlement.
However, the court records suggest federal estate tax regulations could threaten the size of the estate, possibly significantly reducing the amount available for distribution to attorneys and/or beneficiaries.
Regardless, Dubose was "in derogation of the settlement agreement," according to Lockett.
Dubose's attempt on Aug. 3 to honor the agreement with Weaver "purports to split the real property," but is contrary to the agreement and "due to be set aside," Lockett ruled.
Lockett imposed a lien on property that was to be conveyed to Weaver, including:
- 240 +/- acres which belong to the estate which are the acres surrounding the house in which Cheryl Weaver currently resides, including all minerals;
- the 309 acres belonging to the estate in sections 23 and 26, including all minerals;
- the 56 acres which is generally known as the Pringle Property;
Lockett gave Dubose 30 days to transfer ownership of the property to Weaver.
Further, the judge directed Dubose to "take all necessary steps to ensure that the conveyances ... are free from any encumbrance or lien of the IRS as pursuant to the
settlement agreement 'Stuart is responsible for the IRS.'”
A message left Wednesday morning with Dubose's office in Clarke County was not immediately returned.
Weaver's attorneys -- Pete Burns of Burns, Cunningham and Mackey in Mobile and Topie Cassady of Cassady & Cassady, with offices in Fairhope and Evergreen -- pressed the issue with Lockett after Dubose took actions with property in the estate that they contended were in conflict with terms of the settlement.
Dubose is also involved in another lawsuit that has attracted media attention.
Dubose has sued La-Z-Boy contending that he was injured and greatly disabled while trying to sit in a faulty recliner. The case is pending.
