Monsour et al v. Menu Maker Foods Inc

Filing 129

TRANSCRIPT of Hearing held 4/30/2007 before Judge Belot, Court Reporter: Cindy Schwemmer. Modified on 8/27/2007 (Sealed User Wichita rm, ).

Monsour et al v. Menu Maker Foods Inc

Doc. 129

1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 The Defendant appeared by and through Mr. Val 23 24 25 Wachtel. APPEARANCES The Plaintiff appeared by and through Mr. Dustin DeVaughn and Mr. Richard James; On the 30th day of April, 2007, came on to be heard Hearing in the above-entitled and numbered cause before the HONORABLE MONTI L. BELOT, Judge of the United States District Court for the District of Kansas, Sitting in Wichita. TRANSCRIPT OF HEARING MONSOUR'S INC., ) ) Plaintiff,) ) vs. ) ) MENUMAKER FOODS, ) ) Defendant,) ) ____________________________________ IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF KANSAS

Case No. 05-1204

CINDY L. SCHWEMMER, UNITED STATES COURT REPORTER Wichita, Kansas [phone]
Dockets.Justia.com

2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 case. THE COURT: (Beginning at 3:30 p.m. April 30, 2007, the following proceedings were had.) All right. This is Monsour's vs.

MenuMaker Foods, Incorporated. who are present. MR. DeVAUGHN:

Let's have the appearances and

Your Honor, Dustin DeVaughn and And

Richard James are here for Plaintiff Monsour's, Inc.

Sheila Monsour is here as the corporate representative. THE COURT: Where is Mark Monsour? Mark Monsour is in Tulsa, Oklahoma,

MR. DeVAUGHN: Your Honor.

He is in a voluntary drug rehabilitation program. All right. Who's here for --

THE COURT:

MR. WACHTEL: Menu Maker Foods.

Your Honor, Val Wachtel on behalf of

With me is Mr. Dick Graves who is the

president of Menu Maker Foods, and seated behind me, Your Honor, is Mr. Creighton Cox, who is the general manager of Menu Maker Foods. THE COURT: All right. Well, I've looked over the

things that you all have filed and with great reluctance I am going to ask that this case be reassigned to another judge. I had a conversation with Mr. DeVaughn about this He called to say that the case had been settled. I

assumed at that time -- and I don't place any fault on Mr. DeVaughn at all. I get calls like this. And I, I don't

remember whether I picked up the phone or whether somebody

CINDY L. SCHWEMMER, UNITED STATES COURT REPORTER Wichita, Kansas [phone]

3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 told me that he was on the phone, but I frequently get calls like this saying that a case has been settled. And both

lawyers don't have to be on the phone for something like that. But I had a conversation with Mr. DeVaughn about some matters that are involved in the case that don't directly have anything to do with settlement. I later spoke to Alex

Mitchell, who is Mr. Wachtel's partner, and I had some conversations with him. At the time I had both conversations Had I

I had no idea that this case was going to fall apart.

had any idea like that -- if there was any idea like that, I'm sure Mr. DeVaughn would have told me, or Mr. Mitchell, one or the other. But under the circumstances, I just think it would It will not

be better if one of the other judges handled it. be Judge Brown. other judges. reassign it.

It will either be Judge Marten or one of the

And I'll talk to Judge Lungstrum about how to

Now, that's not to say that I don't think that you ought to cease your efforts to resolve this case because I'm going to tell whoever the judge is that takes this case over that there's a pretrial order yet to be prepared and that there's a dispositive motion, a third motion for summary judgment, that presumably will have to be ruled on, and that where the case will go from that point is either to trial or settlement. Apparently, even though there's a dispute over

CINDY L. SCHWEMMER, UNITED STATES COURT REPORTER Wichita, Kansas [phone]

4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 whether or not a settlement was reached -- and I'm not going to resolve that, you can present that to the next judge if you want -- you were obviously having conversations about settlement. It was not one of these situations where one

party was saying I won't settle this case under any circumstances. talked about. You were having conversations and money was And that suggests to me that at that time

anyway, people were using good judgment, good business judgment, about the case. The most expensive litigation that

can ever be conducted is litigation over principle, over feelings. And any judge will tell you that and any judge that

handles this case from now on out will not care whether the case is settled. I don't care whether the case is settled.

But if it goes to trial, it will be expensive, more so than now. And let me tell you, you can never be sure what a jury's I know your lawyers have told you that, but you You can never be sure. So

going to do.

may as well hear it from a judge.

I would encourage you to continue your efforts to get the matter resolved. But as of now, I'll ask Judge Lungstrum

about reassigning it and you'll get an order to that effect. Any questions? MR. WACHTEL: MR. DeVAUGHN: THE COURT: No, sir. No Your Honor.

All right. (Adjourned at 3:35 p.m.)

CINDY L. SCHWEMMER, UNITED STATES COURT REPORTER Wichita, Kansas [phone]

5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 s/ Cindy L. Schwemmer Cindy L. Schwemmer United States Court Reporter action. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I hereto set my hand on this the 4th day of May, 2007. I, Cindy L. Schwemmer, United States Court Reporter in and for the District of Kansas, do hereby certify: That the above and foregoing proceedings were taken by me at said time and place in stenotype; That thereafter said proceedings were transcribed under my direction and supervision by means of computer-aided transcription, and that the above and foregoing constitutes a full, true and correct transcript of said proceedings; That I am a disinterested person to the said C E R T I F I C A T E

CINDY L. SCHWEMMER, UNITED STATES COURT REPORTER Wichita, Kansas [phone]