Among the arcane rules governing the law, one simple precept is clear: Listen when the judge makes a request. At the bankruptcy hearing for the Santa Barbara News-Press this Wednesday morning, the small gallery was whispering about the defendants’ attorneys, who Judge Ronald A. Clifford III noted immediately were not present in person, as they were directed to be in the calendar for the hearing.
“You are supposed to be here,” Judge Clifford said calmly to a video screen showing Ashlee Lin of the Eisner law firm in Beverly Hills. She was representing Wendy McCaw’s two LLCs that own the News-Press buildings downtown and in Goleta — 715 Anacapa LLC and 725 Kellogg LLC. The newspaper itself was owned by Ampersand Publishing LLC, which in turn was owned by its publisher, McCaw, and had declared bankruptcy nearly two years ago.
Clifford’s tentative ruling stated that the court could not prepare for the hearing without a status conference report and asked why he shouldn’t sanction the attorneys $500 for failing to file the document. The form had appeared in the records one week late. Apologies and excuses — a signature do-over, a family illness — were heard from both Lin and Edward Hays, of Marshack Hays Wood representing the bankruptcy trustee, who expressed their understanding that these delays interfered with the court’s timeliness…