Hylla
Arguments over attorney fees in a case against Rosewood Care Center of Edwardsville will continue May 21 as both sides square off in Madison County Circuit Court Dave Hylla's court.
Representing plaintiff Paul Graves, attorney Robert Gregory will make his case on a motion to compel answers to interrogatories he served on defense counsel Dennis McCubbin and Christie Eckhardt on May 6.
McCubbin responded to the motion a day later, calling it a "fishing expedition."
Graves was awarded nearly $150,000 from Rosewood Care Center in a case that went to trial twice.
He sued the nursing home for allegedly failing to monitor his elderly father, Alfred Graves, who fell and injured his hip.
The first trial ended in mistrial when the jury could not reach a verdict.
In his May 7 response to the motion to compel, McCubbin argues Gregory's interrogatories were irrelevant and overly broad.
"Ostensibly to support his motion for attorney's fees, Plaintiff seeks to conduct a fishing expedition," McCubbin wrote. "There are numerous other ways through which Plaintiff can substantiate his claim for fees."
The hearing on the motion to compel is set May 26.
Rosewood's appeal of the Graves verdict has been stayed until the fees question is resolved.
Gregory and McCubbin have faced off several times over the last year and a half.
While Gregory took home the verdict in the Graves' trial, a jury found for Rosewood in another negligence case that McCubbin defended.
Hylla presided over both of those cases.
The Graves case is Madison case number 03-L-1166.