Justice Faith Ireland (f/k/a Faith Enyeart) The following article excerpts were retrieved through a public library
from the ProQuest periodicals and newspapers database.LACKLUSTER CHOICES FOR HIGHEST COURT
Seattle Times, Seattle, Wash.
Oct 25, 1998 [FINAL Edition]
Pagination: B10
ISSN: 07459696
[the following is an excerpt from that article]Making a second try for the high court, Ireland is a tougher call because she is not a terrible judge, but not a very good one either. Around the Courthouse, she is known as a so-so legal mind. She can be temperamental with court personnel and other lawyers, which would pose a problem for the high court, where prickliness is out of control.
A nagging problem is her conduct in 1989 where, as a claimant in an insurance case, she failed to fully disclose in an affidavit her relationship with an arbitrator. Ireland, then known as Faith Enyeart, was acting as a private citizen in the case, but as a judge she knew well the obligation to fully disclose material facts. Ireland is not the caliber of lawyer who should sit on the Supreme Court.
IRELAND, FOLEY SPORT POLAR-OPPOSITE STYLES
Seattle Times, Seattle, Wash.
Oct 29, 1998 [FINAL Edition]
Authors: DAVID POSTMAN
Pagination: A1
ISSN: 07459696
[the following is an excerpt from that article]But Foley says he questions Ireland's conduct in a 1989 case in which she was acting as a private citizen in an insurance claim.
After an arbitration panel awarded Ireland $182,833 as the victim in a hit-and-run auto accident, the insurance company, State Farm Insurance, said she did not fully disclose her relationship with one of the arbitrators.
"Good faith and fair dealing would require that a party to an arbitration not attempt to conceal the relationship at that time, but rather bring it into the open so that its effect on the arbitration can be measured," the insurance company said in court documents.
Ireland, though, said in an affidavit that no one asked her about her acquaintance with the arbitrator.
"I find it difficult to believe that I, a lawyer and judge, should have been expected to select an unknown arbitrator," she said in the affidavit.
A Grays Harbor Superior Court judge agreed with the insurance company, vacated the award and ordered a new arbitration panel be appointed.
The state Court of Appeals sided with Ireland and reinstated the award, but Foley maintains her failure to disclose the relationship was "not becoming of a judge."
Washington Court of Appeals Reports
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INS. CO. v. ENYEART, 66 Wn. App. 1013 (1992)
___ P.2d ___
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE INSURANCE COMPANY, Respondent, v. FAITH
ENYEART, Appellant.No. 13837-9-II.
The Court of Appeals of Washington, Division Two.
June 24, 1992.
UNREPORTED OPINION
Appeal from a judgment of the Superior Court for Grays Harbor County, No. 89-2-00013-6, Michael G. Spencer, J., entered March 26, 1990.
Reversed by unpublished opinion per Petrich, C.J., concurred in by Morgan and Seinfeld, JJ.
Washington State Supreme Court Reports
120 Wn.2d 1024 (1992) State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., Petitioner, v. Enyeart, Respondent,
No. 59786-3. Petition for review of a decision of the Court of Appeals, June 24, 1992,
66 Wn. App. 1013. Denied. January 6, 1993.