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Woman Drops Lawsuit Over Civil War Debt

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: May 31, 2008

TAMPA - This civil court war is over.
Joan Kennedy Biddle, who sued the city this year to collect $22 million for a Civil War-era debt owed to her great-grandfather plus 147 years' worth of interest, has given up the fight.

Biddle's attorney notified the city Friday that Biddle would drop the lawsuit, pay the city $4,000 in legal fees and hand over the promissory note that started the battle.

"We could not have done any better if we had gone to trial," said Jerry Gewirtz, chief assistant city attorney who argued that the statute of limitations on the note had run its limit. "We got everything we possibly could."

The icing on the cake, Gewirtz said, was getting the promissory note, an important city artifact that might end up in a museum.

The $299.58 note, issued by Tampa on June 28, 1861, to general store owner Thomas Pugh Kennedy for "defense of the city," was handed down through generations of family.
Biddle sued in March and sought to collect not only the original value of the note but also 8 percent interest each year since. The compounded interest brought the total she said the city owed to $22,718,400.

The city fired back with more than 20 arguments and a motion to dismiss, calling the delay by Biddle and her family in asking for the payment "completely unreasonable, inexcusable and unprecedented."
Biddle couldn't be reached for comment late Friday.

Researching Florida's legal history for the city's argument was fascinating, said Gewirtz, who has practiced law for 28 years and has served more than 15 years as assistant city attorney in Tampa. The Tampa History Museum called him Friday to express interest in displaying the IOU.

Florida created a statute of limitations in the 1820s, when it was just a territory. When Florida became a state in 1845, the Florida Supreme Court recognized those limitations.

"We traced the history all the way from 1845 to the present," Gewirtz said. "It was a unique opportunity."

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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