In Re: Barbara Dunn
| Docket Number: | 2010-CS-00323-SCT Linked Case(s): 2010-CS-00323-SCT ; 2010-CS-00323-SCT ; 2010-CS-00323-SCT |
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| Supreme Court: | Opinion Link Opinion Date: 04-26-2012 Opinion Author: Kitchens, J. Holding: HINDS COUNTY CIRCUIT CLERK BARBARA DUNN IS SANCTIONED |
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| Additional Case Information: |
Topic: Contempt - Circuit clerk - Personal sanction - Section 9-1-43 - M.R.C.P. 77(d) Nature of the Case: CIVIL - OTHER |
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Synopsis provided by:  If you are interested in subscribing to the weekly synopses of all Mississippi Supreme Court and Court of Appeals hand downs please contact Tammy Upton in the MLI Press office. |
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| Topic: | Contempt - Circuit clerk - Personal sanction - Section 9-1-43 - M.R.C.P. 77(d) |
| Summary of the Facts: | Hinds County Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn undertook to pay a $5,000 sanction that the Court had imposed on her in 2010, by means of a bank check drawn on the “Hinds County Barbara Dunn Circuit Clerk Fee Account,” signed by her, after having been specifically ordered by the Court in its decision to pay the sanction from her personal funds, and not to pay the amount, in whole or in part, from public funds. In 2011, the Court ordered Dunn to take certain remedial measures to correct specified clerical deficiencies in her offices and report in writing concerning her progress in that regard. The Court also ordered Dunn to provide documentary proof that she has repaid that account with her personal funds. Dunn filed a pleading with a personal check payable to “Hinds County Barbara Dunn Fee Acct.” in the amount of $5,000. |
| Summary of Opinion Analysis: | Section 9-1-43 caps all circuit and chancery clerks’ personal compensation at $90,000 per year, and further provides that “All such fees received by the office of chancery or circuit clerks that are in excess of the salary limitation shall be deposited by such clerk into the county general fund on or before April 15 for the preceding calendar year.” Thus, in counties in which the fees collected annually exceed $90,000, a circuit clerk’s fee account contains both public funds and funds that eventually will belong to the clerk as payment for his or her work performed for the public. The $5,000 sanction that the Court levied upon Circuit Clerk Dunn was a personal sanction that was imposed upon her and her alone, and she plainly and unequivocally was ordered not to satisfy the sanction, in whole or in part, from public funds. Dunn’s original payment did not come from an account which is a repository for Dunn’s private funds only. Dunn has also failed to demonstrate to the Court that she has implemented practices and procedures to assure her offices’ full and consistent compliance with M.R.C.P. 77(d). For Circuit Clerk Barbara Dunn’s failures to comply with the orders and directives of the Court, she is found to be in wilful and contumacious contempt of the Supreme Court of Mississippi, for which she is sanctioned in the amount of $10,000, which amount she shall wholly pay from her personal funds, and not from public funds. |
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