Cuba Timber's status to do business in state questioned

By By Steve Gillespie / staff writer
Dec. 2, 2003
The attorney for the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors asked a County Court judge on Monday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Cuba Timber Co. Inc. because it was not licensed to do business in Mississippi.
Rick Barry told Judge Frank Coleman that Mississippi rules of judicial procedure say that a corporation not licensed to do business in the state has no authority to file a lawsuit in the state.
Barry's move came during a court hearing on the county's lawsuit against Cuba Timber for damaging county roads and Cuba's cross-claim against District 5 Supervisor Ray Boswell.
Barry said Cuba Timber's cross-claim was in answer to the original lawsuit filed against the company by the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors so it should not single out a specific person.
Coleman recessed the hearing without setting a date to reconvene.
Business status
Barry said information on the timber company's status to do business in the state was supposed to have been received from the secretary of state's office on Monday. He said he would notify the judge and Cuba Timber's attorney, Greg Malta, when he receives it.
Barry gave the judge pages printed from the secretary of state's Web site that he said shows Cuba Timber's license to do business in Mississippi was revoked at the time it filed a cross claim.
Malta objected to the noncertified documents based on their authenticity and called them hearsay.
Original suit
Lauderdale County originally filed suit Oct. 6, alleging that Cuba Timber, through its cutting and logging operations, negligently and recklessly damaged two county roads Cole Road in the amount of $20,548, and Alamucha-Whynot Road in the amount of $7,079.
The complaint states that the county requested the company pay for the damages in letters sent to the company president, Steve Goodman, in July and August.
In its answer to the complaint filed Nov. 5, Cuba Timber states it was licensed to use the roadway for logging. Cuba Timber said that the lawsuit should be dismissed because other logging companies were using motorized equipment on Alamucha-Whynot Road at the time of the county's complaint.
In its cross claim against Boswell, Cuba Timber alleges the county supervisor made false and defamatory statements about the company on a television news program aired in August.
Cuba Timber wants the case brought before a jury in Circuit Court and is asking for judgment against Boswell in the amount of $175,000 in compensatory damages and $1.75 million in punitive damages.