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Judge DuBose in legal fight with Alabama Power over right-0f-way access rights Circuit Judge Stuart C. DuBose minces no words in his criticism of Alabama Power and its law firm in a right-of-way condemnation case that he is embroiled in as a private citizen. DuBose has refused to allow Alabama Power access to transmission power lines that cross his property in south Clarke County, saying the company has no legal right of access. James A. Byram Jr. of the Montgomery law firm of Balch & Bingham said in a legal filing in Clarke County Probate Court that Alabama Power in 1938 acquired by condemnation a transmission line right-of-way across the property now owned by DuBose. DuBose contends that Alabama Power has no easement and has denied access to the right-of-way through his property, warning the company "to stay off my property and to stay off of my roads." In September 2006, power company lawyers filed for a condemnation to gain access. DuBose responded, "Alabama Power ain't getting on my land anywhere…Forget it. Stop it. Quit it. It's over. Now, live with it." In October, Balch & Bingham filed suit in Clarke County Circuit Court to gain entry on the property for surveying access rights and appraising the property as a preliminary step to the condemnation action. Since DuBose is a sitting circuit judge, Judge Charles Partin was appointed from outside the circuit to hear the case. In January he granted Alabama Power the access it sought. "Notwithstanding this court order, Defendant [DuBose] refused to cooperate, and even threatened [Alabama Power's] independent appraiser with trespass…." Judge Partin issued a second order to compel DuBose to permit entry and did not rule on Alabama Power's suggestion that DuBose be held in contempt for his action. A hearing in Clarke County Probate Court was set for Monday, Oct. 22. Probate Judge Becky Presnall recused herself because of DuBose's position as circuit judge and Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb appointed Covington County Probate Judge Sherrie Phillips. DuBose asked that the case "be continued indefinitely" since Oct. 22, this past Monday, was the beginning of a criminal jury term of court, adding "this Court [DuBose] has no date available in 2007 or 2008." Further, DuBose said he did not have an attorney since Grove Hill attorney Lee B. Williams had withdrawn due to recent health problems. DuBose, who signed all of his correspondence in the personal matter as Circuit Judge of the First Judicial Circuit, added that the probate case "is frivolous, vexatious, without merit, hateful, mean-spirited, and contrary to Rule 11 and the Legal Responsibility Act of the State of Alabama." Balch & Bingham attorneys answered that it shouldn't be a problem for DuBose, even as a circuit judge, to "walk down the hall for a Probate Court hearing (lasting usually an hour or less)" on the matter. The lawyers said his statement that he had "no date available in 2007 or 2008" for a hearing is "at best, difficult to believe." They asked that his request for a continuance be denied. Judge Phillips is set to hear the case on Tuesday, Nov. 20 at 10:30 a.m. DuBose, in response filed Oct. 17, asked for more time to find a lawyer to represent him and that the filing by Balch & Bingham be struck. "The undersigned [DuBose] has contacted numerous attorneys from all over the state and they have all said the same thing, 'I (we) can't take on the money and the power of the Alabama Power company and everything they will throw at us'." DuBose asked for time until he could "find somebody with the guts and the capability to fight a legal attempt by the Alabama Power Company to steal a poor man's land one more time." In a separate filing he called Balch & Bingham "the biggest law firm in the state of Alabama with over 100 lawyers and nothing else to do but spend the bill payer's money filing meaningless, frivolous, vexatious, misleading, prejudicial, irrelevant, and immaterial wrong conclusions of another person, who is obviously bought and paid for by the Alabama Power Company."
DuBose said he first pointed out that the power company had no easement for its power lines and asked them to "stop spraying poison on the land of the undersigned or to quit using the property of the undersigned for convenience, benefit and profit for the power company."
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