Judgments: Collecting the Winnings

New York’s Democratic Congressman Adam Clayton Powell Jr., pastor of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, walked jauntily away from the Sunday service. Then he spotted a CBS mobile television unit taping reactions to the death of President Kennedy. Never anx ious to avoid exposure, Powell rushed over to shake hands and offer his own comments on the assassination. To his surprise, he wound up the final hand shake holding not a microphone but a summons to appear in criminal court. A process server, sure that a shot at publicity would lure the Congressman, had quietly joined the TV crew. “Well, I guess you fellows got me,” said Powell, laughing. “Congratulations.”

Congratulations were not necessarily in order. The Sunday summons was only the latest in a long series of legal actions that began eight months ago when Mrs. Esther James, a Harlem widow, was awarded $211,500 in a libel suit she had brought against Powell (TIME, April 12). Mrs. James has been trying to collect ever since. But so far, Powell has paid nothing. And his elaborate evasive tactics are an eloquent demonstration of how a whopping award for damages may leave the winner poorer than when he brought suit.

Simple Refusal. When the loser is insured, as is general in the auto-accident cases that make up the bulk of civil damage suits, payment normally is quick. In those liability and libel suits where huge judgments make huge headlines, the uninsured loser may pay up, post a bond and appeal — or resort to pure procrastination. Appeals are a prime source of delay and hold great promise for the loser’s pocketbook. Only a few weeks ago, a New York appeals court lopped nearly $3,000,000 from the $3,500,000 libel verdict won in July 1962 by Radio-TV Entertainer John Henry Faulk. While he was waiting for the latest verdict, Faulk’s legal costs grew to the point where Attorney Louis Nizer claims they already outrun the $550,000 of the award.

Even a final judgment may leave a winner little more than a moral victory. Though Congressman Powell has an income estimated above $60,000 a year and a house in Puerto Rico’s secluded Vega Alta suburb, he talks poor-mouth when it comes to paying Mrs. James. He has repeatedly refused to post bond, even when her lawyer, Ray mond Rubin, offered to settle for a bond less than the full amount. And though the law offers a variety of measures for enforcing the judgment, Powell has so far frustrated them all simply by refusing to appear.

Sunday Service. Getting Powell to pay has become almost a sport for Attorney Rubin and bystanders. In one series of moves starting in April, Rubin obtained a subpoena to examine Powell’s financial records. But subpoenas in noncriminal cases cannot be served on Sunday, the only day Preacher Powell can readily be found in New York. Finally nailed at the end of summer, he nonetheless failed to show up in a state Supreme Court. Rubin then started contempt of court proceedings; once more, Powell ducked court orders until a U.S. marshal caught up with him two months later in Washington. Powell’s appearance in court, scheduled for last week, was put off again because President Johnson chose to address Congress that same day.

Rubin has also tried other maneuvers. He was turned down in a move to have the Congressman jailed last July, because Congress was in session. He went on television twice and inspired a flood of tips about Powell’s finances. Then he blocked a Powell bank account, took steps to keep Powell from transferring assets out of his own name. And when Rubin figured he had solid evidence that Powell had diverted to his wife a $900 payment for an article in Esquire, he was able at last to take his fight into criminal court, where he got the summons that was servable on Sunday.

Further attempts at delay are certain. In the libel trial itself, Powell’s attorneys tried no fewer than 42 different times to postpone proceedings, and it is not likely they have run out of gambits. “This is the happiest day in my life,” cried Mrs. James when the original verdict was in. But Powell’s inspired procrastination ever since would seem to prove that happiness cannot buy money.