Judge Stephen Bough refused to recuse himself from a case involving Hanna Holdings, stating that their attorneys had already been given the opportunity to raise a conflict. Attorneys for Hanna Holdings dispute this claim.
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Attorneys for Hanna Holdings, the parent company of Howard Hanna Real Estate Services, are intensifying their efforts to have Judge Stephen R. Bough removed from the Gibson commission lawsuit, according to legal documents filed on Friday.
The latest filing questions a statement made by Bough earlier in the month, where he mentioned that the attorneys had the chance to request his recusal in May 2024.
Hanna Holdings attorneys maintain that their local counsel was not present in the courtroom during the final settlement hearing on May 9, 2024, emphasizing that no attorney attended the meeting.
The ongoing legal dispute involves the remaining real estate defendants in the Gibson antitrust case.
During a hearing in May 2024, Bough asked lawyers in the case if they wished for him to step aside due to donations from attorneys to his wife’s city council campaigns.
In his recent order denying the recusal motion, Bough referred back to that hearing, referencing the campaign contributions as the basis for the request.
In response, Hanna Holdings attorneys wrote in a letter that they have no evidence of their representation being present at the hearing, and the law firm did not submit any time entries to Hanna Holdings related to the case.
The attorneys have maintained that they only discovered the potential conflict recently and demanded Bough’s recusal after the discovery.
They also pointed out Bough’s recusal in another Missouri case for a similar conflict of interest.
While the three real estate companies seek to have the case transferred to courts in their respective states, Bough has yet to make a decision on those requests.
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