Mont. Judge rules on case - 24 years later

GREAT FALLS, Mont. — The wheels of justice grind slowly, but this is pushing the envelope. In Montana's Toole County, retired District Judge Ronald McPhillips ruled this week in a lawsuit that was left hanging for nearly a quarter-century. The judge ruled in Great Falls against Milan Ayers, who contended that former partner James Rubow swindled him out of his share of a natural gas field, with leases potentially worth millions of dollars. The lawsuit was filed March 31, 1983. The last entry in the clerk's register was in March 1985. Then the file disappeared from the clerk's office. After the Great Falls Tribune wrote about it, McPhillips found the case documents. "I think he found it in an old briefcase he had at home," said... [read full story]                    

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