Judge calls $1.2 million judgment against him 'illegal, immoral'
Mobile judge orders Judge Stuart Dubose to desist
from private communications with his court
By Chip Drago
Mobile Bay Times
Mobile County Circuit Judge John Lockett Tuesday ordered Circuit Judge Stuart C. Dubose of Clarke County to stop privately communicating with him in the wake of the Mobile jurist's $1.2 million judgment against the Jackson judge.
Lockett made public record a six-page fax that his office received from Dubose on Sunday, two days after Lockett ruled against Dubose in a legal malpractice suit.
A friend and caregiver to Joseph J. Sullivan in his declining years, Ms. Cheryl Weaver sued Dubose, who was then in private practice, over the Jackson lawyer's handling of Sullivan's will and $2.5 million estate.
Dubose's communication lacked proper certification as required by law, forcing Lockett to regard it as "an ex parte" or impermissible communication with the court in violation of other parties' rights to be informed of all proceedings, the judge ruled.
"The court hereby files the six-page facsimile with the clerk and makes it part of the record," Lockett wrote.
Dubose's fax to the court included copies of two letters to his attorneys, one detailing his legal arguments in defense of his handling of the estate and the second likening the impact of the adverse ruling to the death of his "father or other close relative."
Dubose and Weaver, the sole beneficiary of the estate, had reached a confidential settlement last fall just before the case was to go trial.
Lockett found Friday that Dubose had failed to uphold terms of the settlement.
"... the Court could not have entered a worse ruling than it did ..." Dubose declared.
The order wasn't legal and furthermore there was "no justification" for ruling against him individually, according to Dubose.
"Not only is it not legal, but it is immoral," Dubose wrote. "The order must not become public knowledge. It must not be recorded."
Dubose feared the judgment would "ruin" him both professionally and financially.
He contended that the malpractice case which also named him individually had been dismissed.
In the letter, Dubose demanded that his insurance carrier be made to "pay the judgment immediately to prevent harm or further harm to me."
"Let there be no confusion -- I demand A.I.M. pay the full limits of my coverage immediately and that you notify (Weaver's attorney Pete) Burns, etc. that I have made this demand and am attempting satisfaction and remind him that pursuant to the purported settlement agreement he can't publish this ruling, which would include a prohibition against recording it," wrote Dubose.
In the other letter, written before Lockett's ruling, Dubose advanced his arguments against Burns' motions that Weaver be awarded what she was entitled to under the settlement.
Among the 14 reasons he cited for denying Weaver's request, Dubose noted that the Internal Revenue Service "unexpected by anyone" conducted an audit rather than issuing a closing letter.
As a result of the IRS audit, an assessment of $450,000 was made against the estate.
"The current tax deficiency claimed by the IRS is limited exclusively to the fact that attorneys' fees were taken as a deduction, but prior to August 2007, they had not been paid," Dubose argued.
"For four years, three months and 16 days (I have) undertaken every conceivable effort and action to protect and preserve the estate in order to satisfy and fulfill the specific terms of the last will and testament of (Joseph J. Sullivan), the first of which is to pay (his) debts," Dubose pleaded.
Dubose characterized Weaver's lawsuit as "a backdoor effort to contest the provisions of the will, which she views evidently, as an opportunity for an additional financial windfall."
But for the court's re-entry, Dubose would be "in the position of winding up and submitting a final accounting," he contended.
A message left Wednesday morning with Dubose's office in Clarke County was not immediately returned.
Weaver was also represented by Ms. Topie Cassady of Cassady & Cassady PC, with offices in Fairhope and Evergreen.
