The Case That Never Ends

Loyd Cook

It’s a lawsuit that mirrors the famous battery commercial … it just keeps going and going and going.

After a three-hour-and-40-minute executive session, Kaufman County Commissioners took no action regarding a lawsuit that has been in the court system since the mid 1990s.

“Jo Ann Combs v. Kaufman County, et al” — involving a monetary figure of $143,168.95 in 2002 — has worked its way through different levels of the court system until finally landing in the Fifth District Court of Appeals.

Click Here to Read Latest Edition“What the executive session basically was, was that there will be a hearing on Jan. 3 in the Fifth Court of Appeals,” County Judge Bruce Wood said after the marathon session was opened up to the public. “The rest of the executive session was an update on the status of the appeal.”

Charles Kimbrough, who has been the county’s attorney through much of the process, gave the update during the closed session.

According to information in a Feb. 12, 2009 Kaufman Herald article:

• On Dec. 30, 2008, the Fifth District Court of Appeals in Dallas reversed a decision reached June 2007 by visiting judge John Robert Adamson in the 86th District Court that dismissed a civil suit filed by Combs seeking financial reimbursement for services rendered as a court-appointed legal guardian for Wallace A. Darst, brother-in-law to former Kaufman County Judge Maxine Darst. The appellate court remanded the case for trial on its merits.

• On June 24, 1994, Joseph Darst, one of Wallace Darst’s sons, filed for guardianship of his father, who was suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, according to court documents.

• On July 5, 1994, Darst’s other son and daughter filed to deny the material allegations in the application and to specifically contest their brother’s qualifications as a guardian.

The presiding judge of the county court at the time was Maxine Darst, who recused herself from the case. Attorneys then verbally agreed to let Judge Glen Ashworth, who at the time was serving in the 86th District Court, preside over the case. Ashworth appointed Combs as guardian of Wallace Darst’s estate as well as his ad-litem. Eight years later, Combs billed the county for services in the case.

And that’s where the dispute began.

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The Case That Never Ends