FARMINGTON, Mo. – Former tugboat worker Timothy Williams committed fraud in federal court in Illinois or perjury in Missouri, St. Francois County associate judge Joseph Goff ruled on June 12.
He found that after Williams told U.S. District Judge Staci Yandle he couldn’t do heavy work, he sought payment in Missouri for doing heavy work.
Goff also found that Farmington physician Sunil Chand testified for Williams in Yandle’s court without disclosing a financial interest in the result.
Goff sent his ruling to Yandle, who ordered Williams to show why she shouldn’t vacate a $1,282,270.37 judgment she entered for him in 2018.
“Plaintiff’s contradictory sworn statements and a witness’s hidden personal interest in the outcome of this litigation may constitute circumstances where the impartial functions of the court have been directly corrupted,” Yandle wrote.
She gave him 30 days to answer.
Williams sued Central Contracting and Marine in district court in 2015, claiming he fell because rigging between barges slackened as he tightened a wire.
Attorney Roy Dripps of Maryville filed the complaint alleging negligence and failure to provide full maintenance and cure.
He identified Williams as a St. Francois County, Mo. resident.
Central Contracting and Marine filed a counterclaim stating it wouldn’t have hired Williams if he had disclosed his history of low back injuries.
Defense counsel Douglas Gossow of St. Louis wrote that Williams claimed injuries within a week of being hired.
He requested a setoff against any award in the amount of maintenance and cure payments and other benefits.
Yandle dismissed the counterclaim and held bench trial in February 2017.
Chand testified that he started treating Williams for opioid addiction in 2011.
“His mother was helping him out,” he said. “He was not working.
“He was ready to get out of this condition and start correcting things for himself.
“I’m trying to tutelage him into becoming a drug counselor. He is taking charge, discussing issues, trying to learn the aspects of addiction medicine.
“The transformation has been great. His understanding of the disease has been very great.”
Attorney Courtney Stirrat of Clayton, Mo. at plaintiff’s table with Dripps, asked Williams if he was able to do construction jobs like he did in the past.
“Yeah, maybe, I mean really light,” Williams said.
Stirrat asked if he could do construction jobs outside of his restrictions and he said no.
She asked what he did and he said, “I’m a drug and alcohol counselor in training for Mr. Chand.”
She asked if he was paid and he said not right now.
She asked for a typical day and he said, ”Just meeting Mr. Chand at the office and we discuss a few things and then I do a big group.”
He said, “Then I see one on one different people until like two in the afternoon and then that’s about it, go home.”
She asked if there are things he used to do around the house that he couldn’t do now and he said, “Maybe mow the yard or something like that. I’m just pretty careful any more about doing a lot of things.”
She asked if he could do home repairs and he said, “Light duty stuff, yes.”
She asked if he could hang drywall and he said no.
She asked if he could repair cars and he said, “Light stuff probably yes.”
She asked if he could clean and he said, “I couldn’t get on my hands and knees for an hour, no.”
She asked if he could carry a box of something at Sam’s and he said, “I’m not supposed to, no.”
Yandle entered judgment in April 2018, finding Central Contracting and Marine failed to promulgate and enforce safety rules, failed to train employees with respect to laying wire between barges, and failed to assign an adequate crew.
She awarded $87,727 in past lost wages, $298,582 in future lost wages, $11,863 in past lost benefits, and $131,167 in future lost benefits.
She awarded $300,000 for past pain and suffering and $200,000 for future pain and suffering.
She awarded $216,227.55 in medical bills as unpaid cure, but didn’t find enough evidence to support an award of future medical expenses.
Interest raised the total to $1,282,270.37.
Instead, he waived and released Central Contracting and Marine from all claims for attorney’s fees and costs.
In November 2018, Chand sued Williams for back rent in St. Francois County.
His lawyer David Mayhugh of Farmington claimed that in May 2016, Williams and his mother moved into a property Chand owned and Williams signed a lease.
He claimed Williams hadn’t paid rent since August 2016.
Williams filed counterclaims, arguing he performed extensive work for Chand at their residential and business properties.
His lawyer Laurence Schmidt of Festus attached a logbook Williams kept while working on Chand properties.
He also attached a commitment Williams signed in August 2016, to buy the property upon receiving $70,000 from settlement of an accident.
He also sought compensation for time Williams spent as drug counselor.
At trial last year, Schmidt asked Chand if he had a financial interest in the outcome of Williams’s injury trial.
Chand said yes, and Schmidt asked if he pointed that out to anyone.
Chand said, “It was never asked but I would have, if it was questioned.”
Schmidt asked if Williams was going to stay on his property indefinitely.
Chand said, “As a doctor I felt empathetic. I felt maybe even beguiled. I wouldn’t want him to fail in his addiction treatment because it would put a lot of hardship there.
“Plus I was hoping that his settlement would come in and he would pay me what he owed me.”
Attorney David Mayhugh of Farmington, representing Chand, asked Williams if he performed some pretty hard work for Chand beginning in 2016.
Williams said yes, and Mayhugh asked if he testified in federal court that he was unable to mow lawns.
Williams said, “I don’t think I did but I wasn’t working for Chand then.”
Mayhugh said, “Your book indicates that you began working in 2016.”
Williams said, “The trial was in 2016, bud.”
Goff said, “If I hear anything more like that, you will be done testifying and this case will be over.”
Mayhugh showed Williams a transcript from Feb. 14, 2017, and Williams said he thought it was 2016.
Mayhugh asked if he indicated that he wasn’t being paid and wasn’t certified, and he said yes.
Mayhugh said, “Now you’re asking this court to award you money for work that you weren’t certified to earn money for. Do you understand that?”
Williams said yes.
Mayhugh asked if he got well and was able to mow after February 2017.
He said yes, and Mayhugh asked the date.
Williams said, “May of ’17, something like that.”
Mayhugh said his logbook showed he went to Chand’s building in Festus in December 2016, to haul off debris and tear out old wood.
Mayhugh said, “You didn’t tell the court that in February of 2017, did you?”
Williams said, “No, I didn’t,” and Mayhugh asked why not.
Williams said, “I don’t know. I just – I mean – I don’t have an answer for that.”
Mayhugh asked if it was possible he didn’t tell the truth and Williams said, “No, it’s not possible. I’m telling the truth.”
Goff proposed to admit the transcript and Mayhugh moved to do so.
Schmidt said, “Judge, I’ve not seen it.”
Goff said he would admit a certified copy.
Goff’s order awarded nothing to either side.
He found it apparent that Chand didn’t expect monthly rent.
He found Chand agreed to provide beneficial testimony after Williams agreed to purchase the property when he received the proceeds.
“Financial arrangements that provide incentives for the falsification or exaggeration of testimony threaten the very integrity of the judicial process which depends upon the truthfulness of the witnesses,” Goff wrote.
He found that when Chand learned Williams received the proceeds, he insisted that he purchase multiple properties for nearly the exact sum he received.
He found Williams refused the offer and their relationship broke down.
He found logbook entries in 2016 for mowing lawns, replacing drywall, cutting and hauling away a tree, demolishing an interior wall, removing a roof, and replacing it.
He found Williams spent four hours picking up and hauling scrap metal and ten hours moving furniture and boxes less than a month before his testimony.
He found a dilemma between mutually exclusive realities.
“One, defendant performed all of the tasks he seeks remuneration for in this action and defrauded Judge Yandle,” Goff wrote.
“Two, defendant did not perform the actions from his note book and has perjured himself to this court.”
He found Williams had unclean hands and that, “Where a party has unclean hands, a court may deny a party equitable relief.”