In documents filed Thursday in U. S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the district's attorney and the attorney for P1 filed for a joint protective order claiming that the case may involve "confidential and proprietary information."
The motion includes a suggestion for an order by the judge, which would require each side to "assemble and destroy" these documents after the case is completed.
It is not clear what information a public school district would have concerning a building project that it could not allow the public to see it.
The district filed the lawsuit after hearing that P1 was going to file a lawsuit against it, claiming that it was owed more than $6.5 million for overtime and other costs associated with the rush to get Joplin High School open by the beginning of the 2014-2015 school year. The district claimed the company had done shoddy work, but it has still been using P1 through the construction of the high school performing arts center and paid a bill for a much smaller amount to the company during the May board meeting.
I think it's very suspect that the agreement with CJ Huff contains stipulations that he can't sue the school district and in return we can't sue him. What will come out of this lawsuit against P1
ReplyDeleteNothing says shady quite like an assemble and destroy order.
ReplyDeleteSo much for transparency with R8. I hope the new Board doesn't agree to this. The honorable thing now is to pay the bill. CJ has seen to it that he won't be financially accountable for it (no pitchforks and lanterns after all), but the district owes money to a company that built the schools. The taxpayers are stuck, but the folks who built the school should not be. This is not their fault. Perhaps the pressure should be put on those in charge while the construction job was being rushed. Anne Sharp? She was president at the time.
ReplyDeleteIt's not an unusual submission at all in a commercial litigation case, and is likely the product of a desire by the electrical contractor. Parties often want a protective order because the scope of discovery is very wide in such cases, and a company may have to disclose in the course of discovery information that it considers proprietary and doe not want its competitors to have--disclosures that may not be relevant or admissible at trial, but are permitted by the rules of discovery.
ReplyDeleteJPS may not have such proprietary information at stake, but you can bet the electrical contractor does.
If you get worked up every time someone at JPS farts, people will eventually tune you out. There's plenty to be upset about. This isn't it.
Abolish the BOE. Unless everything is disclosed. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH.
ReplyDelete@3:11
ReplyDeleteYou can't abolish the Board. The people elected Koch, Martucci, and Fort to make changes. They are trying. If you are unhappy, direct your attention to Huff's crew: Banwart, Steele, and Landis, and their accomplices in the county commissioners office.
Maybe we should take up a collection to hire Loraine to see what those people are so scared of. I'm happy to contribute to the cause.
@1:34 Well said. The turner report is great for information, but the signal to noise ratio is just too low.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't the headline say R-8 District AND P1 wants lawsuit information kept confidential?
ReplyDeleteThe fact that a private company wants information kept confidential is not news. When a public school district wants to keep information confidential that should be of concern to every taxpayer.
ReplyDeleteRandy, I tried to explain how it works, but just like the non-story about the collateral assignment given by the City to Prime, you don't bother to ask anyone who knows something about the legal process before going to press.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, when exactly is Prime going to file suit?
I'll go ahead and answer: Never.
What R-8 wants is irrelevant in the context of civil commercial litigation in federal court. A federal judge will grant the motion if made by the electrical contractor, but in federal court, absent a joint motion, it requires a hearing, and so to avoid a hearing and wasting more money by making the parties send attorneys to argue a motion that's going to be sustained, the motion is filed jointly. Trust me, it wasn't done so R-8 can keep secret the superintendent's underwear size.
Like I said, you do a good job disseminating information other local media doesn't, but in your zeal you often jump on something that's actually not scandalous at all.
I'll say it again, there are plenty of things about R-8 to be upset about. This isn't one.
One more thing: There may indeed be information disclosed by R-8 in the course of discovery that wouldn't be admissible at trial, and that any school district might reasonably not want to allow an opposing party to disseminate. The fact that one party is a school district doesn't mean that there might not be information of a sensitive nature disclosed in discovery that a reasonable person would not want made public or that may, by law, not be made public. That could include personnel and other information that's required to be treated confidentially. In the course of discovery, a party can ask for just about anything with a remote nexus to the dispute and get it. It doesn't mean that information is admissible at trial, or that it's even legal to disseminate it. Thus the order.
ReplyDeleteThis is a discovery order, and it's routine in commercial litigation. It doesn't pertain to information offered into evidence at trial. Any laundry dirty enough to matter in this dispute, so long as it's relevant to a claim or defense, will be known to all.
NORM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Delete@7:56....Ok, that makes sense. It's just that after everything this district has been put through, anything perceived as clandestine is going to be met with public scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the legal jargon explanation. Just want to know what happened and about the $6.5 million. It complicates truth and facts being reported. Creating tough situation for a board that wasn't even involved. Hard for them to explain when it's all secret. Globe will create some "propaganda" story to explain it.
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should ask Billy Long what he thinks about all this folderol?
ReplyDelete