Bernard Harwood, the attorney selected to conduct mediation of Renfroe v Rigsby, the Alabama case, submitted his report to Judge Acker in a short letter posted on the docket today.
Dear Judge Acker:
I regret to report that the mediation of this case failed to produce a settlement. The parties and their counsel and I meet for an all day session in Birmingham on September 25th and have subsequently continued in dialog by telephone and email up through today. Although some progress was made. no resolution of all aspects of the case was achieved and. the deadIine for completion having passed. I communicate to advise the mediation is terminated.
Very truly yours.
Bemard Harwood
No surprise here other than the lingering surprise mediation was even attempted. In hindsight, it appears likely Judge Acker ordered the mediation hopeful it would offset the outcome of Scruggs appeal to the 11th Circuit.
As we posted here, the 11th Circuit has acknowledge receipt of the full record the Court will consider.
With Judge Acker, it’s anyone’s guess what will happen next although waiting for the 11th to complete the review of Scruggs’ appeal would seem the prudent move. It remains my non-lawyer opinion that the largest issue is Acker continuing to hear the case, particularly once he was aware the Rigsby sisters had filed suit under the False Claims Act; but, that may be beyond the scope of what the Court will consider.
I’m not sure the outcome of Scruggs appeal to the 11th will have any bearing on the case itself. If I remember correctly, he is just appealing a contempt award against him and that is just because he didn’t do something ordered by Acker. I can’t see how that will have any bearing on the merits of the underlying case, and as I see it, if he is successful in his appeal, he will get his $ back and then Renfroe can go after the sisters for the contempt $. I believe when all that was taken place some months back there was an indication that he filed the appeal on behalf of himself and not on behalf of the sisters.
I would venture to guess that Renfroe is still pretty pissed at the sisters and Dickie combined and the fact that this didn’t settle during mediation is probably not favorable to the sisters side. If, and that is a big if, Renfroe prevails in the case, I can see the damage aspect of this being rather large. Just a guess on my part. I am assuming that Dickie is still indemnifying them for costs and potentially any judgement against them.
JMHO but I’d think the lack of settlement could be favorable to the sisters – simply because there was a legitimate question about Renfroe having the standing needed to file the case. The issue predates slabbed and was given little attention; so, that’s about all I know specific to this case.
However, I believe this information in my qui tam notes identifies a related issue I would expect to have been raised in mediation.