August 2008 Nevada Lawyer
POLITICS AND EXTORTION AMONG THE NEVADA SUPREME COURT CLERKS
BY PATTY CAFFERATA, ESQ.
Fifteen individuals have served as Supreme Court Clerks in Nevada – a position with a colorful past. Previous clerks have made history through their good and/or bad conduct. In addition, the office itself made history when the position changed from being earned through a statewide election, to being combined with the secretary of state’s office, to being elected statewide, to finally being appointed by the court.
From Nevada’s statehood in 1864 until 1959, the clerks were elected on a partisan ticket. Five were elected as Democrats, five as Republicans and one as a member of the Silver Party. Four of the elected clerks were defeated in their re-election campaigns. Ten of the clerks were men and the current position-holder, Tracie Lindeman, is the fifth woman to serve as clerk.
In 1983 the Legislature combined the clerk’s position with that of the secretary of state. Secretary of State Eugene Howell, a member of the Silver Party, acted as the court clerk for two terms (1895-1903). He published the first Biennial Report of the Clerk of the Supreme Court. He listed cases and names of lawyers, described the office budget and expenditures and the court rules.
In the 1902 election, William Douglass (R) defeated Howell by 166 votes. Douglass also served two terms as secretary of state from 1903 to 1911. In 1910, the Nevada Supreme Court decided that the two offices were separate constitutional offices with distinct duties and that they could not be combined. State v. Howell, 23 Nev. 373 (1900); State v. Douglass, 33 Nev. 82, 89 (1910).
Some of the more interesting clerks include Alfred Helm (R), the first clerk. A prominent businessman, Helm was associated with Parker & Moore, a saloon and theater. He was also appointed territorial treasurer of Carson County in 1861 and also served as its District Court clerk. In 1874, after three terms as clerk, rather than run for re-election, he ran for and was elected to the Assembly. He represented Ormsby County (now Carson City).
The second clerk, Charles Bicknell (R), served four terms over 16 years – the longest in the position of the elected clerks. Previously, he had been elected secretary of the state senate for the 1871 and 1873 sessions.
The third and sixth clerk, Joe Josephs, was first elected as a Republican in 1890. In 1910, as a Democrat, he became the sixth clerk when he beat J.W. Legate (R) by an 11-vote margin, one of the closest statewide races in Nevada history. Legate challenged the election results by filing a petition for a quo warranto writ in the Nevada Supreme Court. In Legate v Josephs, 35 Nev. 1 (1912), the court excluded certain ballots and determined Josephs was the winner. Undaunted, Legate filed another petition for a quo warranto writ, Legate v. Josephs, 35 Nev. 300 (1912). The court added 30 more ballots to Joseph’s election-day votes and declared him the winner by 41 votes.
Josephs became famous for one other reason: he resorted to extortion during his second term. In his first Biennial Report for 1911-1912, he reported that he was cataloguing the cases from the Territorial Court to the present day and asked the Legislature for money to complete the job.
To assist in this work, the Legislature approved a deputy position with a salary of $150 a month. In March 1913, the state senate conducted an investigation of Josephs’ activities. At the senate hearing, Josephs’ first deputy, Guy Guinan, testified that Josephs suggested Guinan pay him $40 for the deputy’s job. After he was hired, Guinan paid $35 a month for a while. When Guinan quit making his monthly payments, he was fired. Calvin Davis, Josephs’ second deputy clerk, also kicked back money to hold his position. He admitted that he paid $100 a month out of his $150 monthly salary to work in the office.
Josephs’ extortion activities did not hinder his re-election efforts in 1914. He ran unopposed for clerk and received the highest number of votes for all the offices on the ballot that year. He had barely begun this term when he died, at age 68, in Carson City in January 1915. Fortunately for Nevada, Josephs was not representative of the average clerk of the court.
After Josephs’ death, Democrat Henry Mighels became the seventh clerk when he was appointed to finish Josephs’ second term. Although he had been elected to office previously, he did not run for election at the end of the term. Mighels had served as speaker of the assembly in 1877. A journalist by profession, Mighels was associated with the Carson City newspapers.
In 1926, Eva Hatton (R) became the first woman elected to the position. She was the eighth person to serve as clerk, beating out the incumbent, William Kennett (D). Democrat and former secretary of state, George Brodigan, beat Hatton in her third campaign for the office in 1934. He died before the end of his term in 1938 and his widow Margaret (D) was appointed to fill his term. She ran for and was elected clerk twice. The 11th clerk, Ned Turner (D), beat Margaret when she tried for her third full term in 1950. He resigned when the Legislature made the office an appointed one in 1959.
Of the appointed clerks, the 12th, Charles Davenport, served for four years and the 13th clerk, Judith Fountain, served six years. The 14th clerk, Janette Bloom, was the first attorney to serve as clerk. She worked for the court from 1988 to 2008, the longest of all the clerks. Like Lindeman, Bloom started work at the court as a staff attorney. She oversaw the expansion of the court and the move to the new Supreme Court Building. Bloom also began the electronic filing program, which is still in its pilot stages.
The current clerk, Tracie Lindeman, is a mother of two who graduated from Pahrump Valley High School, Stanford University and Gonzaga Law School in Washington state. Justice Charles Springer hired her as his law clerk in 1995, and she joined the central legal staff the following year. She was appointed clerk in January 2008.
Lindeman faces a growing case load. Her challenges will be driven by finding technology to provide electronic access to documents and filing. Lindeman plans to continue Bloom’s policy of a user-friendly approach to parties and the public within the appellate rules and procedures.
Thanks to Kathy Harrington, Law Librarian, Nevada Supreme Court and Chris Driggs, Archivist II, Nevada State Archives, for assisting in obtaining some of the background information in this article. Thanks also to the State Bar of Nevada staff for interviewing Tracie Lindeman.
List of Nevada Supreme Court Clerks
Helm, Alfred (R), 1864-1867
Helm, Alfred (R), 1867-1871
Helm, Alfred (R), 1871-1875
Bicknell, Charles F. (R), 1875-1879
Bicknell, Charles F. (R), 1879-1883
Bicknell, Charles F. (R), 1883-1887
Bicknell, Charles F. (R), 1887-1891
Josephs, Joe(R), 1891-1895.
Statutes of 1893 consolidated the offices of secretary of state and clerk of the Supreme Court to save money beginning in 1895.
Howell, Eugene (S), 1895-1899 also secretary of state
Howell, Eugene (S), 1899-1903
Douglass, William G. (R), 1903-1907 also secretary of state
Douglass, William G. (R), 1907-1911
1910 Nevada Supreme Court decided that the offices couldn’t be combined
Josephs, Joe (D), 1911-1915 (died January 21, 1915)
Mighels, Henry (Hal) R. (D), appointed January 22, 1915 until next election in 1917
Kennett, William (D), 1917-1919
Kennett, William (D), 1919-1923
Kennett, William (D), 1923-1931
Hatton, Eva (R), 1927-1931
Hatton, Eva (R), 1931-1935
Brodigan, George (D), 1935 (died February 28, 1938)
Brodigan, Margaret I. (D), appointed March 5, 1938
Brodigan, Margaret I. (D), 1939-1943
Brodigan, Margaret I. (D), 1943-1947
Turner, Ned A. (D), 1947-1951
Turner, Ned A. (D), 1951-1955
Turner, Ned A. (D), 1955-1959, resigned July 11, 1959
Effective January 1959 position is appointed (Statutes of 1957)
Davenport, Charles R., appointed September 1959 and served to 1983
Fountain, Judith L., appointed September 28, 1983 and served to 1988
Bloom, Janette Marie, appointed November 21, 1988, retired January 2008. First attorney to serve.
Lindeman, Tracy, appointed January 2008.