Judge’s order buys time for building owner

Judge Cordell Maddox has extended for two weeks the time for a downtown Seneca building owner may have for retaining an attorney to represent his interests against the city.  Maddox explained to family members of the Rev. Efford Haynes, the building owner, that by not hiring such an attorney, Haynes runs the risk of the appointment of a receiver whose job would be to distribute assets that Seneca seeks to satisfy a $573 thousand civil court judgment.  Maddox, the circuit court judge, further ordered that Haynes be enjoined in the meantime from distributing assets.  Haynes’ daughter, Saverne, said her elderly father could not be present for today’s proceeding because of health reasons and that the family has hired a Greenville lawyer to help them handle her father’s affairs.  But she said the attorney is not an attorney of record in the her father’s long-running battle over the condition of a large building in the downtown—between the blocks of Main and North First, bounded by Depot Street.