Miriam Shearing Partnership of former justice's husband involved in sealed case Stefany Miley Case involving Family Court judge, her husband and their law firm sealed Denise McCurry Attorney's former law firm is litigant in sealed 2004 case

Keeping from the public information about judicial colleagues or their relatives is among the uses Clark County judges have found for their authority to seal civil cases, given them by a Nevada Supreme Court decision 12 years ago.

Litigants whose cases have been sealed by District Court judges include a Clark County Family Court judge, a Las Vegas law firm with which a former state Supreme Court justice is associated, a medical practice owned by the husband of a former state Supreme Court justice, a lawyer who serves as a temporary judge on matters before the Supreme Court, and an MGM Mirage attorney who unsuccessfully ran for Las Vegas Municipal Court in 2003.

One of the litigants whose case was sealed is Hutchison & Steffen, a firm with which the author of the 1995 Whitehead Decision, on which judges now rely for authority to seal them, is associated. Thomas L. Steffen served on the Nevada Supreme Court from 1982 to 1997, and according to the firm's Web site is "of counsel" to the law firm partly owned by, and named for, one of his sons.

The law firm is an "other plaintiff" in two lawsuits filed in 2000, involving a drug company that claims to develop cutting-edge medications for AIDS and Alzheimer's disease. The Las Vegas-based company was known at the time as Steroidogenesis Inhibitors International. The company is now known as Samaritan Pharmaceuticals.

Looking only at the names of the plaintiffs and defendants, one case appears to involve a dispute between the company and one of its executives. The second appears to be a dispute between dueling executives and involves 85 plaintiffs.

Could those plaintiffs be investors or employees? Since both cases were sealed by judges whose identities are not known to the public, no more information about those lawsuits is available from court documents.

One of the cases, which was sealed in March 2004 and closed February 2005, was assigned late last year to District Court chief Judge Kathy Hardcastle. The other case, which was sealed in January 2001 and closed in February, was assigned late last year to District Court Judge Valerie Adair.

The husband of former Justice Miriam Shearing, who wrote the Whitehead minority opinion that opposed the sealing of court cases, and Kenneth Westfield, both eye doctors, in 1997 merged "the two largest and oldest ophthalmic practices in Nevada" to form the Shearing-Westfield Eye Institute, according to the firm's Web site. The name was changed to the Westfield Eye Center in 2002, the Web site adds.

The same year that Stephen Shearing created the partnership, Miriam Shearing, a Clark County District Court judge for the previous 10 years, was the first woman elected to the state Supreme Court. After serving as chief justice, Miriam Shearing retired from the Supreme Court at the end of 2004.

In a 2001 lawsuit, the Eye Center and Dr. Westfield are named as plaintiffs and counter defendants in a lawsuit that pits Westfield against St. Paul Medical Liability Insurance Co.

Miriam Shearing could not be reached for comment.

The Shearings had been married 50 years when she stepped down from the Supreme Court, according to an article about the judge in the August 2004 issue of the magazine "Nevada Lawyer." The couple moved to Las Vegas in 1969 and Miriam Shearing was the first woman elected Clark County Justice of the Peace in 1977.

In the article, written as Shearing prepared to depart the state's highest court, Supreme Court Justice William Maupin is quoted saying, "It was her commitment to equal access to the justice system and a fair and competent resolution of all disputes for everyone, regardless of their background, gender or their condition of life" that made her successful.

The name of the judge who sealed the case is one of the facts hidden by seal, but court records obtained late last year show the case was still assigned to former District Court Judge Gene Porter, who is no longer on the bench.

Clark County Family Court Judge Stefany Miley, her husband, Edward R. Miley and their law firm were sued by a Las Vegas woman just days after Stefany Miley took the bench in January 2005. Attempts to reach the plaintiff, Valerie Carr-Blum, were unsuccessful, and Miley did not return a call placed to her office at Family Court.

The case was sealed and closed Jan. 20 -- exactly a year after the lawsuit was filed. Late last year, the case was assigned to District Court Judge Douglas Herndon.

Bill C. Hammer, a hearing master for the Nevada courts, filed a lawsuit in 2000 against a woman named Sarah Kang and the Hartford Fire Insurance Co. The name of the judge who sealed the case, in January 2001, is itself sealed. Late last year, the case was assigned to District Court Judge Stewart Bell, the former Clark County district attorney.

According to Hammer's biography on the state Supreme Court's Web site, he previously worked as a chief deputy in the district attorney's criminal division and as a chief deputy for the state attorney general's gaming division. He also was president of the Nevada Trial Lawyers Association in 1987 and 1988.

The former law firm of Denise McCurry, an attorney with MGM Mirage who lost her 2003 bid to replace Municipal Court Judge Toy Gregory, is a litigant in a sealed 2004 case that appears to involve a dispute between law partners.

On the other side of the lawsuit is attorney and one-time state Senate candidate Uri Clinton, who lost a close Democratic primary in 2000 to former state Sen. Joe Neal, D-Las Vegas.

The name of the judge who sealed the case is confidential. Late last year, the case was assigned to District Court Judge Lee Gates.