Kenney v. Byrnes

STATE OF MAINE SUPERIOR COURT
SAGADAHOC, SS. CIVIL ACTION
Docket No. RE-2020-05

JASON C. KENNEY, )
Plaintiff, )
)
)
V. ) ORDER
)
)
BRIANNA M. BYRNES, )
Defendant. )

The Defendant has written to the court asking that the order entered on July 22,
2020 be vacated because she did not receive notice of the hearing held that day. Notice
of the hearing was mailed by the clerk to the address where the Defendant was served.
Though the Defendant properly filed an answer, no address was included on that
answer, which is required by court rules 1 . If the Defendant wishes court notices to be
sent to a different address, the Defendant must notify the court of that in writing.

It must be noted that the only action that the court took as a result of the July 22,
2020 hearing was to expedite the scheduling of mediation. Mediation is required in
civil matters such as this by court rules. The Defendant indicates that requiring
mediation to be scheduled is "not fair" but does not explain why that is the case. As
indicated by the previous order, the court had concluded that an attempt at early
resolution of this case was in everyone's best interest after review of the parties'
pleadings.

If the Defendant wishes the court to reconsider its July 22, 2020 order, the
Defendant must explain in writing why requiring mediation early in the process is
unfair within 21 days of the date of this order.

The Clerk is directed to incorporate this Order by reference into the docket for
this case, pursuant to Rule 79(a), Maine Rules of Civil Procedure

Dated: July 30, 2020

1
Court rules also require documents that are filed with the court to be sent to counsel for the opposing party. It
appears that the Defendant sent her July 27, 2020 letter directly to the Plaintiff rather than to Plaintiffs counsel. In
the future, the court will not consider any filings that have not been sent to Plaitiffs counsel.