Pro Se in the Rocket Docket - Part 4 - Hearing on Damages

The hearing on damages turned out to be a 'bench trial'; much as the 'phone conferences' of Sept 21, 26 & 27 we later found out were 'hearings'. Anyway, we had been to a number of hearings. Brief appearances before the court, quickly over. We we're not prepared for a bench trial and I had to run home and get our exhibits and other documents. The court later remarked to being 'stymied' that we had not been prepared for a bench trial. So the day got off to a bad start and only went downhill from there.

The seized dresses were in the courtroom that day hanging on a clothes rack to one side of the court. Even though as I relate in an earlier post (Pro Se in the Rocket Docket - Part 2 - Summary Judgment) the court had given the dresses to plaintiff to destroy. We had motioned to the court to reconsider this and the court had denied this motion. But here were the dresses which we had not seen since they had been seized in December 2006. The hearing concluded and the judge left the bench and went to his chambers.

My wife went over with one of the baliffs and began to match up numbered pictures of the dresses with the actual dresses. I was sitting and waiting for this day to finally be over when I heard my wife say: "Wait a minute, something is wrong here." At this point there were still a number of people in the courtroom packing up their things, making preparations to leave. Several baliffs, the court reporter, court clerks and plaintiff's counsel (two). We all began to take note of what was going on over where the dresses were. What my wife had discovered as she and the baliff matched a numbered photocopy of a picture of a dress with an actual numbered exhibit/dress, the 'something being wrong' that my wife was commenting on was that:

• there were not sixty-four exhibits/dresses in the courtroom but only sixty. Of the sixty exhibits:
• two were clearly slips, not dresses and bore no trademark of any kind
  
• one was clearly a 'coat'
  
• one was a detachable collar of some sort bearing no trademark of any kind

Plaintiff's counsel were now hovering anxiously nearby with cardboard boxes preparing to take the dresses and leave. One of the bailiffs decided a trip to the judges chambers was in order. While we waited for him to return, my wife continued to examine the dresses. They were wrinkled, rumpled and not in very good shape. The bailiff returned and announced that the judge was not returning. That the dresses would be taken into the custody of the court until a hearing, two days later.

The hearing two days later was a short one. The court was clearly not happy about the hearing growling from the bench "the appellate court is not going to want to see any dresses!". The 'dresses' were given over to the plaintiff's attorneys and that was it. Our days as pro se litigants, defending ourselves in federal court were over. No more late nights learning about the law, procedure and rules. Endless hours spent finding and reading cases, drafting documents and rushing to the court to file. Thankfully done with that.