by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
And on the football field Saturday, as Florida beat Georgia 21-14.
The football win Saturday bucked the trend in which the winning moot court team watched their school lose on Saturday 77 percent of the time.
The team from the University of Florida, law students Gretchen Lehman and John Raines, won Friday’s 2006 Hulsey Kimbrell Moot Court Competition in the Court of Appeals at the Federal Courthouse.
The competition has been held for the past 18 years on the day before the football game between the two universities.
Before court was called to order, Mark Hulsey of Smith Hulsey & Busey explained that it all began when the University of Florida asked him if he would sponsor the competition and he asked Charlie Kimbrell from the University of Georgia to participate as well. Kimbrell died since the last competition.
“We started it and it’s been going ever since,” said Hulsey. “I hope it continues for a long time.”
The teams create a hypothetical case based on principles
and precedents of law, then come to Jacksonville to present their arguments before a five-member panel.
The Gators were the petitioners and presented arguments in the case of Mickey Richto and Maria Richto against the respondents Bullgator Corp., represented by Shalanna Pirtle and Chad Armstrong from the University of Georgia.
Lehman and Raines prevailed 5-0 before the panel of Judge Anthony Alaimo, United States District Court Judge Harvey Schlesinger, Senior Federal Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges, Judge B. Avant Edenfield and Senior Federal Judge John Moore, Jr.
Before the proceedings were adjourned, presiding Judge Alaimo said he was very impressed with the arguments and presentations then added, “They far exceeded what I usually hear in court,”
he said.