MIKE MARTONE

Judge Michael A. Martone was a District Court Judge in Troy from 1992-2010.  Sadly, he passed away in 2013.  Good judge, good attorney, good man.

He was a friend of mine.  Before being elected to the District Court bench, he was an insurance defense attorney, and a good man.  We had a few cases together at the beginning of my plaintiff lawyer career.  Today's story is about one of those cases, assigned to now retired, Wayne County Circuit Judge Susan Borman.

I had reason to retell that story recently, when I facilitated a case, wherein Mike's son, James A. Martone, an attorney with Dickinson Wright, represented the defendant.

While I don't remember the case facts that well, I think it involved a premises liability claim, back in the days before most premises liability cases became victims of the Open and Obvious Doctrine.

Judge Borman prided herself on her quick case turnover.  The standard Wayne County scheduling order had 3 tracks.  Most cases were assigned to Track 1, and attorneys do not need to personally appear at a scheduling conference.  Judge Borman became the only judge to require personal attendance at a scheduling conference, and the pre-determined dates assigned could best be described as Track .6.  I used to tell lawyers that Judge Borman wanted you to complete your discovery before the accident happened.

Judge Borman's trial procedure was to schedule a first settlement conference 35 days after case evaluation and schedule a second settlement conference the Friday after the first conference. Yes, that is correct, 2 settlement conferences in a single week, often with the second settlement conference the day after the first one. If the case was not settled, there was a firm trial date the following Monday. You had better schedule your medical deps as soon as you returned from the Case Evaluation hearing.

To save money (potentially), both Mike and I scheduled our medical deps between the first and second settlement conferences.  However, the judge was sick that week and didn’t come in at all. But, it was conveyed to us that we were going to trial that Monday anyway and we were the only case scheduled.  So, there would be a trial with not a single settlement conference, much less the standard two.

Because my client was a bit of a lunatic, he had rejected a Case Evaluation award he should have accepted.  So, Mr. Martone  and I did the following:

We took the trial deposition of my client's treating chiropractor in the David Whitney Building on Wednesday afternoon.  This was before the building was closed in 2000.  Thank goodness it has been renovated and is again one of Detroit's gems.

After that dep, we went to the airport and hopped a plane to Miami to take the Thursday morning trial dep of a doctor who saw my guy in the ER after the accident.  Mike wanted that dep because my guy had a pretty benign ER exam.  During his questioning, I looked at Mike and mouthed the name “Doogie Howser” referring to the very young looking witness.  Mike nearly lost it on the record, which was of course what I had intended.

After that dep we got back on a plane to Detroit and took the medical deposition of one of my clients docs at Wyandotte Hospital Thursday evening, starting about 7pm.  We had enough time to catch dinner at a Polish restaurant in Wyandotte before the deposition.  The doctor wondered why we appeared a bit punch drunk during the dep.

On Friday afternoon, we took the dep of the defendant, which had been promised to me if we did not settle.

After spending all weekend preparing, we arrived at Judge Borman’s court on Monday morning to find 4 sets of litigants all trying to have their trial exhibits marked by the court reporter.  All had been told they were to be the only case going that day.  

About noon Judge Borman saw us for the first time and told my client that he should accept the CE award he rejected. With no hesitation he said OK, and that was that.  He folded, to my surprise, and after spending several thousand dollars that he could easily have saved.  By the way, no one started trial that day.

After court, Mike and I went to the Tunnel Barbecue in Windsor for lunch.

Mike told me later that our discussions over that week were what persuaded him to run for judge.  Not sure I remember the reason why.

I am sure many lawyers have many stories about cases before Judge Borman.  I have others.  For another time.