With the Abbeville Clerk of Court’s Office closed for the weekend, filing of the judge’s decision is not expected until Monday morning.

When the hearing was suddenly adjourned last week in Newberry, Judge Griffith announced he would have his decision filed within ten days. That has apparentlly not been possible for a couple of reasons.

In the moment of that announcement, the judge was heading off to an appointment just a few minutes away and probably (as most would) did not think through the time sequence. He had asked for briefs from the attorney’s on Monday, but when one asked for relief for a day to be able to attend an important family matter out of town, the judge graciously gave both sides until Tuesday to file. Filing on Tuesday means by close of business that day.

That only left two business days for the judge (and his law clerk) to review the briefs (see The Aquila Report review of the briefs still listed on our front page). This shortened week resulted from the fact that courts were closed on Friday for the Good Friday state holiday (but that’s another story).

One party close to the case has commented to The Aquila Report on the possible cause of this slight delay: “Perhaps the judge didn’t want to spoil the joy of the Easter weekend for the side that does not prevail.”

The Aquila Report will report the findings on Monday as soon as they are available.