Court cases reassigned

COEUR d'ALENE - Dozens of cases that were on the dockets of Idaho's 1st Judicial District Court judges have been reassigned to judges in another judicial district, including a lawsuit filed in July by Coeur d'Alene school trustees Tom Hamilton and Terri Seymour.

The civil suit, filed against the Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees, is one of 54 cases originally filed and assigned to several judges in Kootenai, Boundary and Bonner counties that are now being reassigned.

"In an effort to help balance the caseload and give us some much needed help, the four district judges in the 2nd District have agreed to help us out to the extent that they can," said John T. Mitchell, Administrative District Judge for the First Judicial District.

The 1st District comprises the state's five northern counties, with courts in each county. The 2nd Judicial District includes Clearwater, Idaho, Latah, Lewis and Nez Perce counties.

Mitchell said 1st District judges are as busy as those in the state's 3rd and 4th judicial districts. The 3rd District includes Nampa and Pocatello in Canyon County, and the 4th covers Ada County, where Boise sits.

The practice of reassigning 1st District court cases to 2nd District judges is new.

"What we've done previously hasn't worked," Mitchell said.

In the past, 2nd District judges have agreed to mediate 1st District cases, mainly when a party cannot afford a private mediator.

While that has worked to an extent, Mitchell said, it has required 2nd District judges to incur expenses to travel north from Lewiston, Moscow and Grangeville, at no charge to the litigants.

Second District judges have also headed north, Mitchell said, to try several 1st District cases at a time, only to find upon arrival after making the trip, that all the cases had settled that morning.

The reassignment of cases should help eliminate unnecessary time and travel expenses.

"The net effect of this should help us reduce any backlog," Mitchell said.

The Coeur d'Alene School District Board of Trustees' case was filed in Kootenai County and assigned to Judge Benjamin Simpson. It is one of eight case files of Simpson's that have been reassigned, and is among 17 reassigned from various 1st District judges to Second District Judge Michael Griffin, whose chambers are in Grangeville.

The cases selected for reassignment were submitted by the 1st District judges, Mitchell said. Most of the files fall into certain categories, including administrative appeals, appeals from Magistrate Division cases and post-conviction release cases.

The Coeur d'Alene school board case is listed in the administrative order of the file reassignments as an administrative appeal.

Tom Hamilton and Terri Seymour, Coeur d'Alene school trustees who were elected in May, are the plaintiffs in the case. The school board is the defendant.

The suit alleges the process the trustees followed last spring, when former board chair Edie Brooks McLachlan resigned, was illegal. It further alleges the appointment of Wanda Quinn to complete McLachlan's term is invalid.

The case hinges on interpretation of Idaho Code regarding school board vacancies.

McLachlan remained on the board throughout the appointment selection period and voted on Quinn's appointment. Hamilton and Seymour and their lawyers assert that a vacancy did not exist on the board when Quinn was appointed.

Charles Dodson, the school district's attorney, argues there is nothing in the statute that precludes the board from declaring and filling a future vacancy.

Judge Simpson denied a pre-trial motion in August that would have barred the school board from all further action while board chair Quinn remains on the board.

Another pre-trial motion scheduled to be heard by Simpson on Tuesday has been postponed until 2nd District Judge Griffin reschedules it.

If the case goes to trial, Griffin will likely hear it in Kootenai County.

A call made by The Press to Simpson's chambers to confirm the judge had not voluntarily disqualified himself from the school board case was responded to by a representative of the judge's office. The individual did not wish to be identified.

"The reassignment of the case was to even out the caseload between a couple of districts. It was just an administrative reassignment," she said. "They were certain types of cases. I can't say anything more."

James Bendell, one of the attorneys representing Hamilton and Seymour, said that based on the volume of cases reassigned, is unconcerned about the movement of the case to a Grangeville judge because it is part of an effort to speed cases through the 1st District courts.