Attorney seeks libel
summons dismissal By MONROE ROARK
mroark@TheCitizenNews.com
A
third party in lawyer James Webb's libel lawsuit
against The Citizen and local activist Steve
Brown has responded to demands for his records
with some legal maneuvering of his own.
John
Mrosek, a Peachtree City resident who also is a
lawyer practicing in Fayetteville, filed a motion
Friday to quash a subpoena that Mrosek said is
not only an unnecessary invasion of his own
privacy, but requires him to improperly violate
attorney-client confidentiality.
I
can be disbarred for breaking attorney-client
privilege, Mrosek said Monday. That's
something I take very seriously.
To
support that argument, Mrosek filed a six-page
motion and a 21-page brief Friday in Fayette
County Superior Court.
A
copy of the original deposition notice was
included in Mrosek's supporting materials. A
March 3 letter from Stephen Ott of Webb, Stuckey
and Lindsey advised Mrosek that he would be
required to give a deposition April 25 and
may be subject to discovery procedures
under the laws of the state of Georgia regarding
the newspaper articles that appeared in The
Citizen newspaper regarding James H. Webb Jr. and
Webb, Stuckey and Lindsey.
Webb's
lawsuit stems from two letters Brown wrote
earlier this year suggesting that Webb's position
on the board of a new local bank along with
developers and builders involved in past and
present litigation against the city could be
construed as a conflict of interest. Webb and his
firm have served as city attorneys for Peachtree
City since 1992.
After
those letters appeared in The Citizen, Webb
responded with his own letter demanding a
retraction. When that did not happen, he filed
suit against Brown, The Citizen and
editor-publisher Cal Beverly.
Mrosek
was advised by Ott to back up his computer files
twice and store the material in a safe place so
that it would be available later to the
plaintiffs.
In
the formal discovery request, Ott asked for
all documents authored by, sent by,
received by and/or read by you from any one or
more of the following: John or J.W. Mrosek,
Stephen Fodor, Stephen Brown, Calvin Beverly,
anyone on behalf of Fayette Publishing Inc.,
anyone on behalf of The Citizen, anyone on behalf
of The Peachtree Citizen Review, Michael Hyde,
Betsy Tyler, Nancy Faulkner, Mike Hyde and/or
Mildred Harris.
Mrosek
has put the plaintiffs and the court on notice
that he considers this an extraordinarily
broad, burdensome, unnecessary, unjustified and
invasive discovery, as he stated in his
motion to quash the subpoena.
I
don't believe this is germane or ordinary,
he added Monday. This goes well beyond the
bounds of what is expected in litigation.
Nothing
in the plaintiff's motion specifically states why
Mrosek might be a relevant party to the lawsuit,
but Mrosek thinks the action against him is
because he has submitted competitive bids for
legal services for Peachtree City, and he makes
no apologies for being a friend of Brown's.
Mrosek
has been involved in litigation against the city
in the past, filing in U.S. District Court in
1997 concerning a property damage issue. That was
settled favorably, Mrosek said.
But
Mrosek sees no reason for the plaintiffs to
involve him in this lawsuit to this degree.
Webb
is going to be disappointed when he finds out
there's no far-flung conspiracy against
him, Mrosek said.
To
emphasize what he considers the inappropriate
scope of the discovery request, Mrosek said in
his motion that given the breadth of
plaintiffs' requests... [Mrosek] will risk
contempt of court if he does not produce all
client letters, back issues of Newsweek and a
videotape of the Cracker Barrel 500.
Mrosek
summed up his argument by saying, The
discovery requests should be quashed in their
entirety.
Despite
having to spend a considerable amount of his own
time preparing these materials, Mrosek said that
does not bother him, since he is trained to deal
with precisely such a situation as this.
I'm an attorney. I can take care of
myself, he said.
What
does worry him is the thought of other third
parties who are not attorneys and must
nevertheless take the same measures to defend
themselves, he said.
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