Law Review

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), May 19, 2006 by Daily Record Staff

Church members claim

pastor used $1 million

For the second time in two months, a prominent Baltimore minister has been accused by members of his East Baltimore congregation of mishandling more than $1 million in church funds without authorization of the church trustees.

If granted, last week's request for an injunction filed in Baltimore City Circuit Court would prevent Pastor Donte L. Hickman Sr., of the 2,000-member Southern Baptist Church on North Chester Street, from entering church property, and stop the clergyman, the trustees and the deacons of the church from controlling church property.

Among the many allegations in the latest set of pleadings are that Hickman spent more than $540,000 in church funds for the construction of his home and another $190,000 for furnishings - all without trustee approval.

Perdue not covered

for full $10M deal

Perdue Farms Inc. will have to pay more out of pocket than it expected to in a legal settlement with disgruntled employees, following a federal appeals court decision clarifying the poultry producer's insurance coverage.

The Salisbury-based company was hit with a class action lawsuit in 2001 for allegedly violating both wage and hour statutes and the federal retirement income law. It settled for $10 million, but its insurers, Travelers Casualty and Surety Co. of America and Reliance Insurance Co., balked when asked to foot the bill plus $4.4 million in legal fees.

This week, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the insurers cannot seek reimbursement for any part of the cost of defending the suit. As for the settlement, however, the insurers are not liable for the portion that resulted from the wage dispute, since those claims were not covered.

U.S. judge certifies

BAR/BRI suit

If you took BAR/BRI's bar review course any time since 1997, a team of lawyers in California is trying to get you some money back - whether you passed the bar exam or not.

This week, in a lawsuit against BAR/BRI owner West Publishing Corp. and Delaware-based Kaplan Inc., Judge Manuel L. Real, of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, granted class certification on behalf of all persons who purchased a bar review course from BAR/BRI from August 1997 to the present. The case is scheduled for trial in September.

The suit, filed in May 2005 by former law students in California, Michigan and Louisiana, accuses a BAR/BRI executive of making an illegal market division deal with an executive at Kaplan in summer 1997.

Wye Hall fight is

ADR-bound

A contractor did not waive its right to arbitrate with a former Freddie Mac executive and his wife by filing for an interlocutory mechanic's lien in circuit court, a split Court of Appeals has held.

The ruling was the latest step in a dispute between Winchester Construction Co. and Leland C. and Diane Brendsel over work performed to restore Wye Hall - the couple's historic Queenstown plantation and a rumored resting place of Declaration of Independence signer William Paca.

The Brendsels believe they are owed at least $1 million for damage to their property and overbilling. Winchester, meanwhile, contends it was shortchanged to the tune of $816,000 by the couple.

According to the Court of Appeals, Winchester filed a petition to establish a mechanic's lien as a "protective measure," out of a concern that it would otherwise miss the deadline imposed by the relevant statute.

ALJ has power to order

change in classification

An administrative law judge had the power to reclassify two prison system employees left unsatisfied when their state-run department overhauled its classification system five years ago, the state's highest court has affirmed.

The Court of Appeals held that the ALJ is the final decision- making authority when a state employee complains about whether his job duties match his job title. As such, it is permitted to fashion an appropriate remedy.

"I think that this is a case where the Court of Appeals simply made clear and preserved for state employees the right to a meaningful hearing before an ALJ when they seek reclassification," said the employees' attorney, Hillary Galloway Davis.

Parole division seeks

veto of fee-waiver bill

The Division of Parole and Probation is pushing Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. to veto a bill that would allow judges to waive the fees convicted drunk drivers pay to be monitored by the state.

Right now, the $45 monthly fee for supervision by the division's Drinking Driver Monitoring Program is not imposed by a judge and therefore may not be waived by a judge, unlike court-ordered obligations such as restitution, court costs and supervision fees.

HB 514, which passed both houses of the General Assembly unanimously this legislative session, would give judges the power to waive monitoring fees for defendants who cannot afford to pay.

Co-worker's remark was

no basis for Title VII claim

A bitterly split 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held that a black network technician at a Montgomery County International Business Machines Corp. office could not have reasonably believed that he was making a report of a potentially hostile work environment when he told supervisors that a colleague, while watching television coverage of the Washington-area snipers, said "they should put those black monkeys in a cage with a bunch of black apes and let the apes f-ck them."