Retired Ninth Supreme Judicial District Appeals Justice Dies

The honorable James Donald McNicholas, former associate justice of the Beaumont's Ninth Count of Appeals, died Thursday, October 13, 2016 at Harbor Hospice- apparently at one of their Beaumont locations. He had been the municipal judge of Beaumont for approximately the last ten years, continuing until just before he died. He served as on the Court of Appeals only from 1983-1984.

McNicholas was born in Marinisco, a tiny logging village on the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, a tiny village near the Wisconsin border on April 23, 1918. He got his undergraduate degree and law degree from the University of Michigan. Before his last year of law school, he served as a Captain in the Third Army during World War Two and served under George Patton. He received his law degree in 1948. He was admitted to the Michigan bar in 1948 and the Texas bar in 1949. McNicholas was admitted to practice in all Texas state courts and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas as well as the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. He is a member and past president of the Jefferson County Bar Association, as well as a member of the Texas Association of Defense Counsel.

Judge McNicholas practiced law in Beaumont for sixty years. Most recently he was of counsel at Germer, PLLC. He was Mayor of the City of Beaumont from 1968-1970 and was a Board Member of Jefferson County Drainage District Six at his death. 

Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Monday, October 17, 2016, at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 23rd and Gladys, Beaumont, Texas. Our condolences go to his family.

R.I.P. Joe Jamail

"At the end of trial Thursday, Ferguson got in a shouting match with a young attorney on the defense team who stood up in the gallery and accused him of misstating the record. After Judge Floyd recessed and left the courtroom, the attorney stepped forward. Jamail got in his face. “You’re not lead counsel, so you sit your ass down!” Barger moved between them. “Darrell, you tell him to shut his ass up or I’ll kick the s--t out of him!” Without blinking, the young attorney returned to the gallery.

Afterward, outside the courthouse, Edwards apologized.

'Who the f--- was he?” demanded Jamail.

'One of our appellate attorneys.'

'He looked like a f---ing appellate attorney,' said Jamail."

- See more at: http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-culture/the-greatest-lawyer-who-ever-lived/#sthash.dM3REBMl.dpuf

Except for that lawyer he lost to in his second trial, which was in Fort Worth, the only lawyers who ever every seriously messed with him were bankruptcy and appellate lawyers.

Last in his class at UT Law, Jamail won what was the largest monetary judgment in history at that time. When Percy Foreman had a disciplinary dispute with the State Bar, he hired a very, very young lawyer to represent him-- you guessed it-- Joe Jamail. 

Joe had only one marriage which ended only at his wife's death. I can't find the quote, but he said something like Lee's the one who loved him when he didn't have any money.

H/t to Mike Higgins