Supervisors served with court summons before Jackson County meeting

PASCAGOULA -- An attorney carried boxes of court documents into the Jackson County Board of Supervisors meeting Monday and served three supervisors a summons to court.

Attorney Harvey Barton said the documents related to 152 cases in circuit court where his clients -- retirees from Singing River Health System -- are alleging fraud when the county hospital system failed to adequately fund the employee pension plan but told employees otherwise.

Barton carried box after box of legal papers -- notification of the suit -- and gave them to the three supervisors who were on the board last year: Melton Harrison, Barry Cumbest and Troy Ross. The two newly elected supervisors were not served.

The county is being sued, but so are the supervisors as individuals.

Barton said he expects the local Circuit Court judges to recuse themselves from the case, so there was no judge to grant an extension of the 120-day requirement to serve the papers.

Barton said he asked Billy Guice, attorney for the board on SRHS matters, to accept the process on behalf of the supervisors.

"I received nothing from him," Barton said. "So I said, 'Fine, I know where your clients are, I'll come over and serve them.'"

He did it before the regular Monday meeting started.

Supervisor Barry Cumbest said Guice told them he was advised of the situation "and felt I could not accept process for Jackson County or any supervisor named therein."

This story was originally published March 7, 2016 at 9:05 PM with the headline "Supervisors served with court summons before Jackson County meeting ."