His secretary quickly entered his office, seeming alarmed by the goings-on in the reception area. "We have a problem," she told Ken Tarlton, a Mineral Wells, Texas, solo.
Two unknown women were in the process of hauling into his law office 20 sacks of unrolled pennies totaling $1,000 in loose change. "They were under instructions to dump the pennies out of the canvas bags and return the bags to the bank," Tarlton recalls. "I asked them who gave them the instructions. They said Michael Powell."
Tarlton just shook his head; he had filed a Motion for Enforcement of a court order against Powell, a real estate agent, for his alleged failure to abide by the terms of Powell's 2001 divorce decree. Judge Jerry D. Ray, who presided over the 29th District Court of Palo Pinto County, Texas, had ordered that Powell pay Tarlton $1,000 in attorney fees by Nov. 1, 2003. Although the penny drop seemed a purposefully impractical method of payment, it was timely, occurring two days before the deadline. Powell would later contend that he was just complying with the court's order -- in his own small way.
It didn't end there: There was a contempt hearing in the trial court, an appeal of the resulting Order, and now a possible appeal to the Texas Supreme Court. Details here from Texas Lawyer via Law.com.