IN THE
LARRIANTE SUMBRY, ) Indiana Supreme Court
) Cause No. 45S00-0305-SJ-198
Plaintiff, )
)
v. )
)
ANNA ANTON, DANIEL MOLTER, ) Lake Superior Court
LAKE COUNTY BOARD OF ) Cause No. 45D02-0304-CT-57
COMMISSIONERS, EDWARD )
FELDMAN and LAKE COUNTY )
COURT REPORTER, IN THEIR )
INDIVIDUAL AND OFFICIAL )
CAPACITIES, )
)
Defendants. )
This matter comes before the Court for appointment of a Special Judge. More specifically, in an order dated July 9, 2003, the Honorable William E. Davis, Judge of the Lake Superior Court Civil Division, Room Two, certified this cause to the Supreme Court under the provisions of Indiana Trial Rule 79. The order dictates in pertinent part, “Plaintiff has filed nine (9) civil actions since 1996, of those filed seven (7) are still open. He has named all the Lake County Superior Civil Judges as Defendants except the Honorable Judge Mary Beth Bonaventura.”
Confined to the Department of Correction, the Plaintiff is well known to the judicial branch of government. He has a penchant for filing complaints against a number of public officials and others for a variety claims. Most are filed pro se. Typically, once the trial judge makes an adverse ruling or enters an adverse judgment, Mr. Sumbry sues the judge. In turn the judge recuses himself or herself, another judge is appointed, and inevitably the process repeats itself. At present the Plaintiff has fifteen cases pending before fifteen different Indiana trial judges, most of whom were appointed after the recusal of a prior judge. Enough.
Indiana Trial Rule 79(C) provides in relevant part “A judge shall disqualify and recuse whenever the judge . . . (1) is a party to the proceeding.” It is under this provision
that the instant matter is before us today. However, Article I, Section 12 of the Indiana Constitution militates against our rules being manipulated by a party filing a successive pattern of sham proceedings. The end result of which “is that no judicial forum will exist in which the case can be heard.” In re Appointment of a Special Judge in Wabash Circuit Court, 500 N.E.2d 751, 753 (Ind. 1986).
Rather than automatic disqualification and recusal, the trial court before which the matter is presently pending should:
[C]onduct a summary, yet due process hearing upon the question of whether the claim [now pending] or any other claim of which the court has knowledge, presents a reasonable basis for disqualification. If the Court has jurisdiction of any such claim and such claim is specious and a sham and intended solely to evade court jurisdiction, it should strike such claim. If the claim has no reasonable basis, the court should not disqualify. If the claim does have a reasonable basis, the trial court should disqualify itself and certify such action to this court.
Id., at 753.
IT IS THEREFORE, ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that no Special Judge be appointed in Lake Superior Court and this cause is remanded to Judge William E. Davis to reassume jurisdiction.
The Clerk of this Court is directed to forward notice of this Order to the Hon. William E. Davis, Lake Superior Court, 3711 East Main Street, East Chicago, IN 46312-2299, and to the Clerk of the Lake Superior Court.
The Clerk of the Lake Superior Court is directed to forward notice of this Order to all parties of record in the case below.
DONE at Indianapolis, Indiana, this _____ day of November, 2003.
_____________________
Randall T. Shepard
Chief Justice of Indiana