Dec 28, 2007 7:23 pm US/Eastern
Clerk May Give Deposition In Special Session Suit
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) ―
A panel of judges on Friday cleared the way for a deposition of the chief clerk of the House of Delegates in a legal case seeking to invalidate November's special session.
The Court of Special Appeals panel dismissed an appeal to block the deposition that had been filed by the attorney general's office.
Attorney Irwin Kramer, who is representing Republican lawmakers in the case, has been trying to depose Mary Monahan, whose testimony is considered important to the case.
Monahan keeps records of official House of Delegates business.
Kramer said he is hoping to hold the deposition with Monahan on Monday.
Sandy Brantley, a spokeswoman for the attorney general's office, said late Friday afternoon that attorneys there have not decided whether to appeal the matter to the state's highest court.
Kramer has argued that Monahan apparently had been avoiding the deposition, and he persuaded Carroll County Circuit Court Judge Stansfield to delay a hearing in the case until Jan. 4, to provide more time to get the deposition from Monahan.
On Friday, Kramer said Monahan appears to have become willing take part in the deposition.
Kramer had scheduled a deposition for Thursday in Tampa, Fla., where Monahan had been on vacation, but an appeal from the attorney general's office resulted in a court stay.
Kramer, for his part, said he has filed an emergency stay to delay the implementation of tax increases approved during the special session with Stansfield.
The tax increases are set to take effect next week, and they include an increase in the sales tax and titling tax from 5 to 6 percent, a corporate income tax jump from 7 percent to 8.25 percent and a $1 increase in the tobacco tax.
Democrats have argued that the case is a frivolous attempt to undermine the legislature.
The case focuses on the chronology of record-keeping during the special session.
"I think it's fair to say that those, among many issues, are things that inquiring minds want to know and hopefully we will find out through Mary Monahan," Kramer said.
Sen. David Brinkley, the Senate's Republican leader, said Friday that while lawmakers pushed ahead with a constitutional amendment to legalize slot machine gambling -- which still requires voter approval -- lawmakers should have been abiding by rules in the constitution regarding the legislative process.
Republicans are basing their case on a provision in the state constitution that prevents one chamber of the General Assembly from adjourning for more than three days during a legislative session without permission of the other chamber.
They say the Senate violated the rule, meaning that $1.3 billion in taxes signed into law are invalid.
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