IN THE SUPREME COURT OF MISSISSIPPI

No. 2013-IA-00181
VICKSBURG HEALTHCARE, LLC d/b/a
RIVER REGION HEALTH SYSTEM APPELLANT
VS.
CLARA DEES APPELLEE
APPELLANTS REPLY TO APPELLEES RESPONSE
TO COURTS REQUEST TO SHOW CAUSE
Vicksburg Healthcare, LLC, d/b/a River Region Health System (VHC), Appellant,
urges the Court to reject the excuses advanced by Clara Dees counsel, Michael Winfield,
in his Response to Request to Show Cause filed on March 6, 2014, with regard to his
repeated failure to file a brief in this case. The Court should deny any further extensions
and should rule on the appeal based solely on the VHC brief, for the following reasons:
First of all, here is a time line showing the lack of diligence on the part of Mr.
Winfield:
Original Due Date for Appellees Brief 11/27/13
Appellees Request for Extension 11/27/13
Extended Due Date Granted by Court 1/2/14
(Missed by Mr. Winfield)
Supreme Court Deficiency Notice to
Mr. Winfield for Failure to File Brief
Ordered to Show Cause by 1/22/14 1/8/14
Manually Filed Motion for Extension Filed
Mr. Winfield 1/21/14
E-Filed Motion for Extension by Mr. Winfield 1/29/14
E-Filed Document Mar 11 2014 09:51:39 2013-IA-00181-SCT Pages: 5
Opposition to Extension by VHC 1/29/14
Order by Supreme Court Giving
Mr. Winfield Until 2/17/14 to File Brief
and to Show Cause Regarding Sanctions 2/3/14
New Due Date (Missed by Mr. Winfield) 2/17/14
Letter to Court (Copy to Mr. Winfield) by
VHC re Missed Deadline
(Attached as Ex. A hereto) 2/21/14
Response to Request for Show Cause
Filed by Mr. Winfield (No Brief Filed) 3/6/14
As this time line reveals, Mr. Winfield has repeatedly missed deadlines set by the Court
and then came in after-the-fact to ask for mercy. The end result is that the Appellees
Brief still has not been filed over three months after it was originally due and nearly one
month after the last due date. VHC respectfully submits that the train must leave the
station at some point, and that point is past.
Secondly, the cause which Mr. Winfield tries to show for missing yet another
deadline set by this Court does not stand up to scrutiny. His excuses are (1) that his
daughter was diagnosed with cancer; (2) his brother was prosecuted on federal bribery
charges for which he is now imprisoned; (3) he was involved in a divorce with his wife;
and (4) he did not have a secretary because of financial hardships. As for his daughter,
while VHC extends every sympathy to Mr. Winfield for his daughters cancer, he admits
that his daughter became cancer free before his brother Paul Winfield, the former
Mayor of Vicksburg was prosecuted for bribery. The prosecution of Paul Winfield
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occurred in mid-2013 and was concluded by no later than November 19, 2013, when Mr.
Winfield was sentenced by the United States District Court to 25 months in prison. See
news article attached as Exhibit B. This was two weeks before the initial due date of
the Appellees Brief. Thus, Michael Winfield had no reason to default on his brief based
on his daughters health.
For the same is true regarding his brothers criminal prosecution, because it was
over in November 2013. Moreover, there is no reason to believe that Michael Winfield
played any role in defending the criminal prosecution. Paul Winfield began serving his
sentence on January 6, 2014, so the criminal prosecution could not have prevented
Michael Winfield from complying with his obligations to this Court in January - March of
this year.
As for the divorce, the docket sheet from the divorce case attached as Exhibit C
shows that Michael Winfield has been representing himself in the divorce and filing
pleadings and discovery. If he is able to conduct these activities in his divorce case, why
should he get a pass on obeying the orders of the Supreme Court of Mississippi?
Finally, the excuse of not having a secretary in this day and time is a stretch of
credibility. Vicksburg has a temporary agency (see Exhibit D hereto) from which Mr.
Winfield could have hired a secretary to type his brief, if he could not type it himself.
Mr. Winfield seems to have found a way to prepare and file pleadings in his own divorce
case, and he clearly could have done it here. The undersigned submits that not being
able to afford a secretary is not a good cause for default in an appeal and should not be
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recognized as such by this Court. Otherwise, attorneys might always seek to blame their
lack of staff for their disobedience of court orders and rules, which is contrary to the
code of attorney conduct approved by this Court.
WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, the Appellant prays that this Court will
deny any further extension to Clara Dees, Appellee; will rule on the appeal based on the
briefing filed to date; and will reverse the trial court and render judgment for VHC.
Respectfully submitted,
VICKSBURG HEALTHCARE, LLC D/B/A
RIVER REGION HEALTH SYSTEM
BY: /s/ Clifford C. Whitney III
R. E. Parker, Jr., MSB # 4011
Clifford C. Whitney III, MSB #10273
OF COUNSEL:
VARNER, PARKER & SESSUMS, P.A.
1110 Jackson Street
Post Office Box 1237
Vicksburg, Mississippi 39181-1237
Telephone: 601-638-8741
Facsimile: 601-638-8666
Email: rep@vpslaw.com
ccw@vpslaw.com
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CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
The undersigned counsel of record for Defendant Vicksburg Healthcare LLC does
hereby certify that I forwarded a copy of the above and foregoing document to the
following counsel of record, by first class mail, postage prepaid, fax, email and/or hand
delivery:
Michael E. Winfield, Esquire
Winfield & Moran
1129 Openwood Street
Post Office Box 1448
Vicksburg, Mississippi 39181-1448
Attorney for Plaintiff
The Hon. Isadore W. Patrick
P.O. Box 351
Vicksburg, MS 39181-0351
This the 11
th
day of March, 2014.
/s/ Clifford C. Whitney III
Clifford C. Whitney III
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