Hearing in Brookshire versus Community 1st Bank

A judge said today he’ll be “hard-pressed” at the pre-trial level to throw out the claim filed by a Hilton Head Island woman against the Oconee County-based Community First Bank. Common Pleas Judge Lawton McIntosh made the comment to attorneys as a hearing came to a close at the Oconee Courthouse. However, McIntosh held off issuing his ruling. The judge will study written arguments handed up to him before he rules. Daryl Hawkins, attorney for former bank officer Benjamin Lee Hiott, sought today to have the case dismissed, arguing that plaintiff Debi Baker Brookshire had failed to file her lawsuit within a required three-year period. But David Scott, Brookshire’s attorney, accused Hiott of lying to his client as part of a series of deceptions that resulted in the emptying of a $1.1 million trust, with which the plaintiff had entrusted Community First and had given its then vice president, Hiott, power of attorney. Neither Brookshire, nor Hiott, attended the hearing.