Martha Harris’s civil suit against the state of California and the National Guard, charging negligence in the homicide of her daughter in Culver City, took a bizarre turn late yesterday when her estranged attorney announced he would be returning to court tomorrow morning.
Robert McNeill Jr.’s express purpose was unclear, and he declined to explain.
He merely told the newspaper, “I want to get the court involved.” Pressed for elaboration, he said “I don’t have time to explain.”
Severe friction between Mr. McNeill and the Harris family broke out last week after he presented the hospitalized Mrs. Harris with a $400,000 settlement offer from the state. He vigorously endorsed acceptance (whereby Mrs. Harris would receive less than half, about $175,000, before taxes and perhaps other costs).
The family contends the attorney entered Mrs. Harris’s hospital room on Oct. 4 against their wishes, when they were not present, and assert that he pressured the heavily medicated 71-year-old woman into saying “yes.”
During a thorny telephone call last Thursday from Mrs. Harris’s bedside, between her son, Gerald Bennett, who has been granted power of attorney, and Mr. McNeill, the son said the attorney resigned.
Although subsequently there was discussion of a substitute attorney, Mr. McNeill remains on the case.
Mr. Bennett said that the perceived aggressively presented settlement proposal came out of nowhere.
“Before the offer was mentioned and as of right now,” Mr. Bennett said, “we want a jury trial. That has not changed.”
A week ago last Friday, the weekend before the case was scheduled to open, Allison Bracy, a lawyer from Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt, telephoned Mr. Bennett, to say they were ready to go to trial and urged a family member to be in the courtroom on Monday morning. However, no relative of Mrs. Harris’s was able to attend.
“Next thing I know,” Mr. Bennett said, “they were going into court with something else on their minds.”
He sounded uncomfortable with exchanging lawyers at this point.
“When an attorney comes into a case that is almost done, he is put into a vulnerable position,” Mr. Bennett said.
Difficult Path for a Newcomer
“If the attorney who had the case is not willing to work with the new person, the new person will not have much to work with. The old attorney can hide things, move things around or not be forthcoming.
“That can make it hard to put on a good case before the court and the jury. Bob McNeill strikes me as that kind of attorney. He doesn’t want another attorney to come in and fix the case and get a reasonable compensation.
“If I have to go in and substitute myself, I may. I am not going to let this case go the way it is going.
“I explained to Bob McNeill that I have durable power-of-attorney over my mother’s business affairs, finances, legal matters, everything. I said I would not accept that offer.
“He needs to understand that the family wants a jury in place and to get set for trial. That was the last word we got from them, in the call from Allison Bracy. That was what my mother told him before he quit. He got mad and said ‘If you are not going to take this settlement, I am going to quit.’ That was as clear as the nose on your face.
“My mother said ‘okay.’ And she told me to go out and find another lawyer.”
Meanwhile, said Mr. Bennett, Mr. McNeill “thinks my mother is being coerced by her family not to accept the settlement.
“But I told him I will definitely be in court Wednesday morning, and I definitely will be there with my durable power-of-attorney papers so the judge can see them. I will explain to him our position as a family, where we stand and where we stood. I will explain this man was told to go to trial and nothing else.
“We didn’t give him permission to go in and accept $400,000.”
As for tomorrow morning, Mr. Bennett said Mr. McNeill disclosed his intentions. “He said he is going to ask the court to step in and make a ruling because he feels the settlement is fair and the judgment was entered, and that my mother only is changing her mind under duress from her family.
Son Says Lawyer Is Bluffing
“I said to him, ‘Are you crazy?’ I said, ‘my mother looked at the dollar amount,’ looked at how he tried to take all her money from her, and she just plainly said herself she would not accept that.
“I think this is all bluff now from Bob McNeill. And I am calling him on every bluff. Every bluff. I don’t care if he says ‘the sky is blue.’ I am going out there to check for myself.
“Everything he has said has been a bluff.
“He quoted from a letter he wrote — saying that if you accept a settlement and try to back out, you still might be liable. The way he quoted it in his letter, he was trying to scare us and take advantage of us. When I looked it up, my mother (who has been hospitalized for weeks) would have had to appear in open court and accepted it herself. Not the lawyer. Herself. Or she would have had to sign.”
