Court order snips string of civil suits

By BOB HIGH

Superior Court Judge Ola Lewis has blocked a Cerro Gordo man from filing any more civil complaints as a pauper after she reviewed several of his recent actions and found them to be “… incoherent, without logic or reason, and have no basis in law and all complaints lack merit.”

Phillip Manning, 50, of Henry Gines Road, was brought before Lewis during a civil term late last week and told that he could no longer sue as a pauper because of the large costs he had caused the county and state to handle his frivolous suits.

Lewis told Manning that he had to receive permission from a magistrate or a judge in District Court or Superior Court to file any future complaints as a pauper.

Lewis’ ruling came after she dismissed Manning’s complaint against his church that he sued because they wouldn’t provide him money to pay a reported traffic ticket.

Manning sued the Mount Tabor Baptist Church last June for violating his civil liberties when he was not given money he requested during a church meeting concerning funds the church had set aside for helping people in the community, according to his complaint.

Manning’s record of lawsuits dates back several years and Lewis’ order noted 11 such actions, including some against a firm that he claims stole his car, damages from a trucking company Manning claimed wrongfully ended his employment and damages from Columbus County because the Sheriff’s Office failed to arrest a man who kicked Manning’s car and assaulted him.

Manning’s civil actions noted by the court order date back to 1994 when he filed a complaint against the state, the governor and the North Carolina National Guard, then sued the N.C. School of Law, the state and the president of the University of North Carolina, the Department of Public Instruction and the governor in a second action.

Several other complaints, with the county and state absorbing the filing costs because Manning said he could not afford to pay the required fees, were filed in 1995, 1996 and 1999.

One such action in 1996 was against the Employment Security Commission because of a ruling that he was not eligible for unemployment benefits. This civil file is two inches thick and was finally dropped in 2001.

Another of Manning’s suits went to federal court where it was finally dismissed for lack of merit. The action concerned a 1996 claim by the Cerro Gordo man that he had been wrongfully fired as a truck driver.

One of Manning’s cases was left open. A suit against BB&T is pending and Lewis noted in her order that it is her opinion “that BB&T will prevail on its motion” to dismiss.

Manning claims in his action that BB&T has some items of his removed from a safety deposit box and will not return them. The bank’s filed explanation is that the box was opened and items removed and stored because Manning failed to pay the annual rent.