I file my motion for preliminary injunction to stop department of revenue’s industrial-scale fraud dead in its tracks even though the case number, 33CHI-2024-CV-779, is bigger than it’s supposed to be in McMinn County chancery court. Bottom from left, chancery judge Jerri Bryant congratulates Billy Manis in joining the school board; Patty S. Gaines, clerk and master; and David Tulis, investigative Eagle Radio Network reporter suing to stop mass fraud in Tennessee against the poor criminalizing their use of the roads. (Photos David Tulis, AOC)
ATHENS, Tenn, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024 — The clerk at McMinn County Chancery Court, on the second floor of the old county courthouse, is looking at me through the glass and saying she can’t receive my filing.
Before P.T. Torbett are three stacks of paper I fed into a slot under the pane: Motion for preliminary injunction — 24 pages. Brief in support, 43 pages. Exhibits, about 20 pages. They are neatly stacked, next to her stamps.
McMinn County courthouse is in Athens, Tenn., where my State ex rel Tulis v. Gerregano case is lodged.
A clerk in Hamilton County chancery court is on the phone. “Our clerk interpreted it as a transfer. So we’ve closed our case,” Carrie says. “We’ve moved it to ya’ll. If there’s a snafu, then perhaps our Judge Patterson and our clerk and chancellor Bryant can chat.”
In many courts, a “3-judge panel” case is new. I’m standing before Mrs. Torbett in my press uniform, meaning bow tie, press tag and my favorite “I mean business” blue jacket. Mrs. Torbett is saying that Judge Jerri Bryant has received the case and has been assigned the case. Christimas stockings hang in a row behind her on a far wall.
I represent the state itself my attack on behalf of the citizenry in State of Tennessee ex rel. Tulis v. David Gerregano, commissioner of revenue, and Jeff Long, commissioner safety.
Clerk Torbett makes a call. On the other end, McMinn clerk and master, Patty S. Gaines. Mrs. Torbett says she’s not authorized to give the case a number. Hamilton County criminal court judge Boyd Patterson et al assigned it 33CHI-2024-CV-779, but that is a bigger number used in McMinn Chancery, which for the clerks poses a problem. She wants to receive the case, but not to declare the document “FILED.”
Says Mrs. Torbett, “Just spoke with Kelley, the judge’s secretary. [Judge Bryant] is on the bench. She does have all that you sent. She has to talk with the chancellor. We are not going to assign any new numbers on this.”
“I’m not saying to assign it. I’m saying to put a ‘RECEIVED,’ that you received his documents on December 19 to preserve tht he was trying to file something on today’s date,” Carrie suggests on speakerphone.
“I’ll have to call my clerk and master because I can’t do that without her telling me to do that.”
“You need to be able to say received today,” I insist. “I am here. You are the clerk. You have a duty to accept filings, even if you don’t enter them into the case for lack of a number. You have a duty to receive the document from the person, in the flesh, behind the window, tendering it for submission.”
My case is the 32nd case filed since the anti-corruption three-judge panel began operating in 2021, says Samantha Fisher, spokeswoman for administrator of the courts in Nashville.
A clerk in U.S. district court in Nashville today files a separate federal petition for injunction after it vanishes nearly a week in transit in the U.S. mails. One way or another, the illegal and unconstitutional barbarity of “mandatory auto insurance” in Tennessee will be halted, in God’s good time, and for the benefit of all.
David runs a personal nonprofit fighting and mercy ministry. He thanks you for checks sent directly to c/o 10520 Brickhill Lane, Soddy-Daisy, TN 37379. Also, in GiveSendGo
