During Monday’s hearing to remind Edward V. Giannasca II of the obligatory nature of court commands, Visiting Judge Paul E. Alpert expressed his frustration at not having the most recent or relevant filings — including the very order by which he hailed the Harford County developer back from his family vacation in Hilton Head, S.C.

“I am so totally embarrassed, but I don’t have control over it, the way of the filing or lack of filing of papers,” Alpert said to the attorneys in the case, as his courtroom clerk flipped frantically through folders for the order he issued on June 26.

Eventually, the clerk handed up a copy of the order a previous judge in the case had signed following Giannasca’s no-show on June 23. Alpert seemed relieved.

“I am privileged to have a copy of the show cause order,” he announced.

Alpert had to put the case on pause early last week, too, when the file he received on the morning of the scheduled trial did not contain some of the operative pleadings. (Trial began the next day, sans Giannasca and his co-defendants; Alpert awarded plaintiff Michael McCrary more than $33 million.)

Baltimore City Circuit Judge Evelyn Omega Cannon, who had the case two weeks ago, voiced similar complaints.

Many factors have contributed to the paper problems:

• Stubborn noncompliance by the defendants has filled the file with a rare volume of motions for corrective action.
• At least a half-dozen judges have heard the case in Baltimore City Circuit Court.
• In the past week, there have been a flurry of afternoon rulings that must be filed and docketed before proceedings resume the next day.
• Since Alpert has no permanent quarters in the city courthouses, he presided in Courthouse East last week and the Clarence M. Mitchell Jr. Courthouse yesterday.

All things considered, who (if anyone) or what is to blame for these time-consuming disorganization glitches? The city court’s judicial assignment system? The system by which files are transported and updated? The lack of (money for) an e-filing system similar to that in the federal courts?

BRENDAN KEARNEY, Legal Affairs Writer

Two notable examples of philanthropy last week from the Maryland legal community:

• Golf Fore Heart 2008 raised more than $51,000 for the Society for Heart Attack and Prevention Education (SHAPE) on Wednesday. JoAnne Zawitoski, the event’s co-chair, said more than 100 golfers teed it up at Mountain Branch Golf Club in Joppa. Zawitoski, a principal at Semmes, Bowen & Semmes in Baltimore, started the event last year in honor of her late husband, Guy Fernandez, an avid golfer who passed away suddenly of a heart attack in four years ago. Zawitoski is also a board member of SHAPE.

• The Baltimore County Bar Association donated $10,000 to the Family Crisis Center of Baltimore County Inc. during its Stated Meeting on Thursday. The donation came out of funds remaining from a settlement in Taylor v. Savings First Mortgage LLC, a predatory-lending class action that originated in Baltimore. Savings First repaid $1.1 million to approximately 2,400 customers; as part of the settlement agreement, the crisis center was one of several charities designated to receive money not claimed by consumers. Richard S. Gordon, Kieron F. Quinn of Quinn Gordon & Wolf Chtd. in Towson and Benjamin H. Carney of the Holland Law Firm P.C. in Annapolis were lead counsel in the case.

DANNY JACOBS, Legal Affairs Writer

In one of the last dissents of the term, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. quoted an unusual authority: Bob Dylan.

According to an article published in The New York Times Sunday, Roberts cited to the songwriter in his dissent on whether or not companies hired to collect on behalf of pay-phone operators have standing to sue phone companies over fees.

Roberts writes (PDF):
“The absence of any right to the substantive recovery means that respondents cannot benefit from the judgment they seek and thus lack Article III standing,” Chief Justice Roberts wrote. “ ‘When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose.’ Bob Dylan, Like a Rolling Stone, on Highway 61 Revisited (Columbia Records 1965).”

The Times article discusses the different ways lyrics have made their way into legal opinions, noting that while this is the first time a Supreme Court justice has cited to popular music, many lower court decisions are riddled with these references.

Can you think of any lyrics that Roberts can use in future opinions? Maybe “You can’t always get what you want,” by the Rolling Stones? Or the great Gershwins’ standard, “They can’t take that away from me,” if it’s an eminent domain case?

CHRISTINA DORAN, Assistant Legal Editor