03/02/2021

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF MONTANA Case Number: OP 21-0072

OP 21-0072

HARRY RICHARDS and BILLY BUDD SULLIVAN, Petitioners, v. ORDER MONTANA 19TH JUDICIAL DISTRICT COURT,LINCOLN COUNTY,and THE HONORABLE MATTHEW CUFFE, District Judge, FILED MAR 0 2 2021 Respondent.

Bowen ood Greenwme Court Clerk of Supre State of Montana

Harry Richards and Billy Budd Sullivan (Richards and Sullivan) have filed a Petition for Writ of Supervisory Control over the Nineteenth Judicial District Court, Lincoln County, and the Honorable Matthew Cuffe, District Court Judge, in that court's Cause No. DV-18-7. Richards and Sullivan explain that they initially filed a civil action in Eureka City Court in October 2017, and that the case was transferred to the Lincoln County District Court the next year. They argue that supervisory control is appropriate to address a 23-month delay in the District Court, where "nothing has happened since a February 2019 pretrial hearing, and the court has not acted on their October 30, 2020 rnotion for a new Scheduling Order. They contend that this delay requires a writ "to prevent the gross miscarriage ofjustice." Richards and Sullivan acknowledge that supervisory control is an extraordinary remedy. Our discretion to supervise another court is sometimes justified when urgency or emergency factors make the normal appeal process inadequate, the case involves purely legal questions, and one or more ofthe three following circumstances exist: the other court is proceeding under a mistake of law and is causing a gross injustice, constitutional issues of state-wide importance are involved, or the other court has granted or denied a motion for substitution of a judge in a criminal case. M. R. App. P. 14(3).

We decline to exercise supervisory control in this rnatter. Richards and Sullivan have requested only that the District Court issue a scheduling order, an inherent discretionary act. We secured a copy of the case register of actions. There has been consistent activity in the case since the April 27, 2018 Order Granting Motion to Consolidate cases and Remove to District Court, with the parties filing numerous motions and responses. Richards's and Sullivan's motion for scheduling order was filed with the court on November 18, 2020. On February 19, 2021, the District Court issued an Order setting a pretrial or status conference.

Richards and Sullivan have not demonstrated any urgency or emergency that warrants this Court's intervention or that the District Court is proceeding upon a mistake of law causing a gross injustice.

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that the Petition for a Writ of Supervisory Control is DENIED and DISMISSED.

The Clerk is directed to provide a copy of this Order to the Nineteenth Judicial District Court, Lincoln County, the Honorable Matthew Cuffe, presiding; to all counsel of record in Lincoln County Cause No. DV-18-7; and to Harry Richards and Billy Budd Sullivan personally.

F\ DATED this "2-- day ofFeintitif", ,2021.

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