Petition for Writ of Certiorari — Charles Hines, Petitioner v. JTH Tax, Inc.

Supreme Court briefFeb 19, 2019

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Text

Supreme Court, U.S.

FILED

-9841

FEB I a 2019

office of the clerk

No.

In The

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES *

JTH TAX, INC., dba Liberty Tax Services

Plaintiff? Appellee/ Respondent

CHARLES HINES, Pro Se

Defendant/ Appellant/ Petitioner

in Case Civil No. 2- 15cv558, Norfolk US District Court, 12/23/15 > 04/02/18

in Case Record No. 18-1501, Richmond US Court of Appeals, 05/03/18 > 11/28/18

On Petition for Certiorari to the United States Supreme Court,

in regard to the Norfolk U.S. District Court

and the Richmond Appeals Court of the Fourth Circuit,

as stated above, and the outcomes of Cases

Civil No. 2- 15cv558 and Case Record No. 18-1501,

PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI

Ghar3j|s R. Hines (Pro Se and “Counsel” of Record)

n ■

907 Stormont Circle

■W f|

Baltimore, MD. 21227

410-242-8098h

“ *

410-790-5641c

I am a Pro Se and do not know any better. I find myself trying to work my way

through to a PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI, on the third try.

The format of this “Petition” is taken off of an internet example on “FindLaw”.

Therefore, thinking it is “proper”, I’ve stuck myself on that format, as my guide.

received

JUN 2 5 2019

iESHcoi&Pl

The Constitutional Oath

By readings that I have made of late, isn’t it true that “all federal

officials must take an oath in support of the Constitution”? That’s in

support of the Constitution? THAT’S SUPPORT IT.. .NOT NEGLECT

IT...NOT RESCIND IT...NOT ABOLISH IT...NOT TRAMPLE ON IT!?

“The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the

Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial

Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be

bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support the Constitution;........... ”

., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support

and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies,

foreign and domestic,; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the

same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation

or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the

duties of the office on which I am about to enter, So help me God.”

“I,

Are these two “Oaths” representative of, or identical to, subscriptions

which the District Court Judges and the Appeals Court Judges of both

Norfolk and Richmond, respectively, would have taken and would have

had to have taken?? And shouldn’t I have seen evidence of these

Oaths or Subscriptions hi existence and taking place in my “visits” to

these two Courts?? Shouldn’tl? Shouldn’t!?? But.....

THEY WERE NOT THERE!, especially

iiiNORFOLK; AND THAT IS WHY I AM

HERE, the Supreme Court, looking for

a one chance in a hundred shot at an elusive

JUSTICE, withheld and illegitimately

Denied by Judges of two Virginia Conrts!

THE

BENCHMARK

OF A

CIVILIZATION IS

THE QUALITY OF

ITS JUSTICE!

I‘ \ ]M I U 1

I1 (• i

,a «

ii n

O r cl I- r

o r , h o w about Til E BENCHMARK OF A

('OUIIT SYSTEM IS THE QUALITY OE ITS

JUSTICE!

or. how about THE BENCHMARK AND MEASURE

OF A JUIMJE IS IX THE (QUALITY OF HIS OR HER

JUSTICE !

or. how about THE BENCHMARK AND MEASURE

OE A JUDOE IS IN THE MERE EXISTENCE,

OR NOT. OE HIS OR HER DEMONSTRATION OE

J USTI C E!

WI HOLD THESE

TBUTHS TO BE

BILF EVIDENT

that all men are created

equal, that they are endowed

by their creator with certain

unalienable rights, that

Life, Liberty

and the pursuit of Happiness*

That to secure these rights,

Governments are instituted

among Men 9

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feitingwtetat that ratto* m

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I get CHILLS just reciting these words!

Let me get CHILLS again-

That to secure these rights,

Governments are instituted

among Men,

• • • • ••

fasting whether that natisRy or

any nation- ao eoneeivedl, andi ®o

€rdioate4 can long endure*

“instituted among JMen".. .Men; and therein can lie a problem,

with the compulsions and vanities of (human beings...but of)

Men! In pragmatism and in reality, I do not think that remark,

“and therein can lie aproblem", requires any explanation!

World, American, and Local history are full of examples of lies

and frauds and Misdeeds, and Crime, and Murders, and Wars

born of the vanities, compulsions, and idiosyncrasies of various

power hungry and schizophrenic, narcissistic, individual Men;

and Men, that is, in power, in particular, certain kinds of Men.

finding themselves in power, by being given power, or taking

over power, of other individual’s lives and affairs, as seen in

Germany, 1929 through May, 1945, resulting in cruel and

wanton barbarity and the deaths of over twelve million

“other” human heings, six million of which were Jews! As

the deeds of “those” kinds of Men and that “one” kind of man,

in particular, in Germany from 1929 to 1945, are an extreme

example...nevertheless, sadly, to some extent and in one degree

or another...“that kind of a Man” and “those kinds of Men” exist

everywhere and in all phases of life, in all manner of uniforms

and in the clothing of life, including Judicial Robes. In America

we are taught to believe that we have a safeguard in place to

guard against those “kinds of Men”- a long standing and deeply

rooted legal system which will prevent “that man” and “those

kinds of men” from working their brand of deceit, treachery,

and evil upon us as Citizens of these United States, restrained

by the history, tradition, spirit, and a “Justice fabric”, woven

into our uniquely American legal practices and legal decisions,

as being embodied in governing documents and the overarching

CONSTITUTION of the United States of America, in particular,

“guaranteeing us”, in its 27 Amendments, and particularly the

first ten Amendments, of my, our, and every American Citizen’s

Bill of Rights, which attempts to sweep away and “right” the

accumulated misdeeds and misgivings of all of the known bad

deeds of political and legal human history. What a Document!

I am borrowing and staging words from two of America’s greatest documents

[the “Declaration of Independence, 1776, and Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, 1863] as

an introduction as to WHY I am “appealing” to the Supreme Court of my country, to

right aii unsettling WRONG, WHICH HAS BEEN PERPETRATED ON A UNITED

STATES CITIZEN BY QUESTIONABLE LEGAL PROCESSES, TAKING PLACE

IN, AND GOING THROUGH, TWO COURTS OF THE STATE OF VIRGINIA, in

these United States, supposedly under the auspices and the “divine providence” and

guiding light of the overarching CONSTITUTION of these “united” states. That is

what I thought, before and until 12/23/2015!

These words I have just borrowed for this purpose, and their documents, have

endured, guided, and nurtured this country through time and growth and change and

good times and bad times and depressions and wars, all anchored to or tethered to an

earlier, uniquely early America set of writings, called the Constitution of the United

States of America, from 1791. Peoples have risked their lives at walls in Europe and

pseudo walls on the US border and taking the risk of escaping murderous tyrants in

Asia and Africa, to get to this Country, for the chance to come here and to live here

for the Opportunities and the Rights and Freedoms we Americans Citizens enjoy as

our Birthright! But, yet, this Citizen, Charles Hines, has found his personal two

hundred twenty-six year old birthright to be NEGLECTED, NEGATED, DENIED,

REPUDIATED, VIOLATED, DISCARDED AND TRASHED...bv two Virginia Courts,

holding sway over John Hewitt’s Liberty Tax Services “tax preparation” criminal

enterprise, while presiding over, and in power over, a Court Case and the Defendant

in that Case, Charles Hines, over a period beginning on 12/23/2015 and surprisingly

and questionably cascading through the entire legal system of the United States, by

2019, to you “final stop” Justices, and, maybe, even beyond THAT!!

By experiencing these two Virginia Courts, from February,

2016, through June, 2018, I HAVE BEEN DENIED these

birthright “TRUTHS” and “PROCESSES” by a series of steps

which seemed to be a well-calculated, well-practiced, rehearsed

path, and, equally, a planned progression, designed to assure

that a Plaintiff in a Court Case, Liberty Tax Services, will come

away from a Defendant’s Counterclaims, in that Court Case,

Charles Hines’s, free from any harm, free of any responsibility,

dismissed and discharged and absolved of the horrific financial

and domestic damages perpetrated on a Franchisee Defendant,

and - of utmost importance - free from facing a Constitutional

accounting and reconciliation, under the Constitution of

the United States’ “God Given” Defendant’s Right to

a Jury Trial of his Peers, found in its 7th Amendment!

PETITION FOR

WRIT OF CERTIORARI

NOW COMES Charles Hines (Hines, Defendant, Appellant, Vanquished,

Victim, Supplicant?, Petitioner?) representing himself Pro Se and speaking in

the first person most of the time; and for his PETITION FOR WRIT OF

CERTIORARI, Hines will use sections and pieces of his previously written but

completely applicable and to the point writings, beginning with the following,

poised as if first written right here, and right now.

This, and the pages which follow, is my “RE-CORRECTED” PETITION FOR A

WRIT OF CERTORARI, not much different from the Original, but with a few words,

forms and an Appendix. My “original” PETITION was stamped in at the gate of the

Supreme Court on February 20, 2019. Hopefully, this Petition will be delivered on

Friday, 6/21, or Monday, 6/24. As said before, I would have liked to have submitted

my PETITION sooner; but complicated health issues with my seventy-seven year old

wife are, still, compromising my life, as to what, when, where, and on which I am

able to spend my time. Over the last couple months, with my Wife’s situations, it

became exceedingly difficult, if not, near impossible, to try to stay totally focused on

this PETITION. My Wife of fifty-one years, as of 4/14(68), has had to come first;

PLUS...by ambulance, I was taken to and spent the last week at Bon Secours

Hospital, in Baltimore, being “tested”! I was found in a lawn chair on my

front lawn, unresponsive. I DIDN’T KNOW MY Wife, three closest neighbors,

or the President!

I thought I did a decent job with my INITIAL PETITION; and I feel that with

my ORIGINAL, with CORRECTIONS and ADDITIONS, I still have a very sound and

legitimate Document. Now I do NOT want that statement to come off as braggadocio,

because it is NOT! But with NOT being a LAWYER, NOT going to law School, being

INSOLVENT and, thusly, HAVING TO BE a Pro Se because I lived the

above and I was there minute by minute for the last seven (7) years, I feel like

everything I say is fact, true, relevant, salient and is like hitting a home run with

each keystroke, IF I COULD GET ALL THAT I KNOW AND ALL THAT I HAVE

EXPERIENCED, SINCE APRIL 2012, IN....and have some august body, with

Righteous Authority. ACTUALLY TAKE IT UP, MAYBE I WOULD SEE

JUSTICE.....THAT, IN MY CASE, THE TWO VIRGINIA COURTS,

SPENT SO MUCH TIME “SHELTERING” THE LOCAL, HOME TOWN

CELEBRITY, JOHN HEWITT AND HIS LIBERTY TAX SERVICES TAX

PREPARATION SCHEME, SCAM, AND FRAUD.....THEY DID NOT.....

“TAKE IT UP”!

DID NOT.....NOT

TAKE IT UP!

They were too busy ruling to give John Hewitt and his Liberty

Tax a pass and to make sure NONE of my allegations made it

into the conversations or concerns of Civil No. 2:15cv558!

NONE!

PRELIMINARY INFORMATION

Who Is CHARLES HINES

I have deleted this paragraph to try to save space to get “under 40”, which is

going to get dicey.

How did Charles Hines get to Today

As said in my resume piece, in my adult life, I was in Banking for ten years

and Dry Ice for twenty-eight years, in two dry ice operation, one of which I owned.

Thinking it was “time”, I sold my operation in September, 2004; and for a couple

weeks, I was a millionaire one time over. However, in short fashion, I “distributed

over $600,000” amongst four people who had been with me from the start, 1991,

figuring I’d take off for a year or two and start another business. In this “off time”, I

re-activated my Real Estate license and passed the H&R Block tax course, potentially

giving me sources of income for most of the months of a year, winter and warmer. I

was with Block for four years, enjoyable years; and wanting to get back into business

again - in tax preparation...to “jump-start” my effort, I went looking at Franchises on

the internet, where I came upon ex-H&R Block John Hewitt’s Liberty Tax Services.

Thinking I was getting in on the ground floor of an up-and-coming tax preparation

operation, I strongly committed to John Hewitt and his Liberty Tax! Unfortunately,

with my personal positive feelings about H&R Block, I used Hewitt’s time with Block,

fifteen years, as my “due diligence” on him, which turned out to be a $250,000 fraud,

misrepresentation, misperception, and a horribly destructive MISTAKE!

Background- this Case in thirty-six pages. “The 36”

In my writings, I have proudly boasted as to how well the first thirty-six pages

of my Amended Counterclaim lays out the road to FAILURE that has awaited five

sixths of all of the individuals who have risked over a hundred thousand dollars - in

Franchise Fees and initial Operating Costs - to try to be and become a “successful”

John Hewitt Liberty Tax Franchisee, on a road - since John Hewitt came here from

Canada - that has left over six thousand (>6,000)(>three fourths of all Liberty Tax

Franchisees) of those individuals financially dead, broke, missing, off the road, and

gone from the ranks of active Liberty Tax Franchisees. Euphemistically...that.....or

they...are what I call and refer to as the “missing 6,000”!_______________________

Ifpossible and allowable, PLEASE find “THE 36” in Civil No. 2:15(‘v5.)8 ami

read those ‘My pages IMMEDIATELY!

TELLING ELEMENTS, BACKGROUND, AND

SETTING THE STAGE FOR FAILURE

There are “telling elements” from the first thirty-six pages of my “Amended

Counterclaim”, which I MUST BRING UP AND SHOW! The first “telling element”

is the first two pages of my 3/15/16 “Amended Counter Complaint”, my “Declaration”.

The second “telling element” is pages 22 to page 26, starting with a section

called “The Underlying Bedrock Fundamentals”.

The third “telling element” is on page 28, citing the annual Liberty Tax

“Company Store” Sale, which is startling!

The fourth “telling element” is out of pages 35 and 36, citing the stunning

dollars differential between the sales dollars of average H&R Block Stores versus

average Liberty Tax Stores, which is 1,500 returns versus 450, and $352,000 in H&R

Block sales dollars versus $90,000, for the average Liberty Tax Office! That is a

differential of over “a thousand” tax returns and “a quarter of a million dollars” in

sales dollars, both in Block’s favor. Another way of looking at this and to say it is,

“For your $40,000 Franchise Fee, with Liberty Tax, a prospective business person

pays a penalty of‘a thousand’ tax returns of activity and forfeits ‘a quarter of a

million dollars’ of INCOME, thereby, by being a Liberty Tax Franchisee in the ‘Tax

Preparation’ Industry!” Note: the sales dollars are gross sales, NOT PROFITS; but

the basic operating expenses for both Block and Liberty will be similar, as I know

from being with both operations. PROFITS are the Sales Dollars less Operating

Expenses. $352,000 less expenses will yield a PROFIT. $90,000 less expenses will

probably yield low to no Profits, and, possibly, a LOSS, or a SIGNIFICANT LOSS!

Note- Liberty’s $90,000 in sales is predicated on Liberty’s average tax office’s sales

dollars of ALL Liberty Offices. But the MAJORITY of Liberty’s offices do NOT hit

the National average of returns, but process a mean number of returns of around 343

returns, grossing about $60,000, creating a significant loss for the majority of Liberty

Tax Franchisee’s offices. This is how and why the fellow before me, in Eldersburg,

Dwayne Carter Senior, in territory MD014, lost $100,000 and lasted just ONE TAX

SEASON, information which Liberty made sure I DID NOT FIND OUT ABOUT, IN

SHEER AND FRAUDULENT VIOLATION OF THE FTC’S GOVERNING “RULE”!

The fifth “telling element” is on page 36, a wrap up of the Liberty Tax “Tax

Preparation” fraudulent experience, ending with the word CRIMINAL!

In order to introduce this information, I am going to present a section called

“Telling Elements” and state these five claims, which are seminal and fundamental

to the rampant experience of FAILURE for a prospective business person, trying

their hand in business as a Liberty Tax Services Franchisee. God Bless and God

Help them and make the sign of the cross. They’ll need all of that and MORE, plus

a hell of a lot of LUCK, in order to BE and BECOME “SUCCESSFUL” as a John

Hewitt Liberty Tax Franchisee!

TELLING ELEMENTS

I have bragged about how strong the first thirty-six pages of my “Amended

Counterclaim” is. Justifiably, they should be in this Petition, except that they’d take

up all the available 40 pages. There are “telling elements” from the first thirty-six

pages of my “Amended Counterclaim”, which, somehow, I MUST BRING UP AND

SHOW! So I’m going to do that here.

First Telling Element:

FIRST THINGS FIRST AND CONFUSIONS REIGNS

I, Charles Hines, the Defendant, believe I am the victim of a wide range of

unfair, deceptive, and illegal practices perpetrated against me by Liberty Tax and

individuals under the Liberty Umbrella, which, over the thirty-seven months I was

involved with Liberty Tax, it has been extremely costly for me, in both my business

and in my personal lives! The total cost to me over the four years I was a Liberty Tax

Franchisee - in terms of related expenditures and business losses, while trying to: l)

establish my business; then 2) remain viable as a Liberty Tax Franchisee! and 3) to

try to build on my business to try to create a Retirement Vehicle for my wife and

myself, in the field of tax preparation, are around $300,000. I will present my story!

and I pray the Court will find in my favor, and through various damage awards,

make my financial life whole again. But what the damages and results of Liberty

Tax have been to my wife and to my married life go beyond retrieval, repair, renewal,

and redemption, as my time with Liberty Tax is going to leave very deep scars on my

wife, my WIFE’S HEALTH, my health, and potentially, on my marriage!

This is a Civil Action, No. 2:l5cv558, wherein the Defendant, Charles Hines, is

seeking compensatory damages, punitive damages, and restitution in the amount of

$619,735 from the Plaintiff, Liberty Tax Services, arising out of unfair, deceptive,

unconscionable, and fraudulent trade practices and all other legal words of a similar

orientation and implication, over the period of May 1, 2012, through June 3, 2015, my

Termination from Liberty Tax, but which continues into the present day by Liberty’s

unlawful and unjust attempt to continue to defraud the Defendant, by this lawsuit.

Second Telling Element

The Underlying Bed-Rock Fundamentals

23.

This is Monday, August 22, 2016. Thinking I will be submitting my

Answer and my Counter-Complaint soon, and just going over this “condensed”

document, after not looking at it for a while, I am now furious and frustrated at

myself and wish I had the courage to file a Motion for Dismissal and ask the Court

for a Declaratory Judgement, except that early on in this matter, I had read where

that was a “death sentence” move for a Pro Se! and that has stuck with me!

24.

But...I SHOULD NOT BE IN THIS MESS, BY 16 CFR 436.5(t)(6)!

That’s a starting point for my frustration for now. I am not sure of myself and I do

not want to think I have come upon a Rosetta Stone in this matter, with 436.5(t)(6).

So ignoring (t) (6) for now, there are still some matters which I think go to the gist of

558, whose “common sense” is almost as strong -1 do believe * as (t)(6) is “in Law”!

I’m going to call these matters “The Seminal and Fundamental Factors”; and I am

going make sure I have put them in my Answer as “Affirmative Defenses”.

The Seminal and Fundamental Factors

1. It must be borne in mind that the Seminal Fact, the fundamental

fact, at the bottom of ANY issue, as in this writing, between Liberty Tax

and any individual who may be a Liberty franchisee, is this; on average.

the Liberty Tax Brand DOES NOT DRAW ENOUGH CUSTOMERS

to allow an average Liberty Tax Franchisee to generate sufficient cash

flow to be able to satisfy both the attainment of the financial perquisites

necessary for the on-going maintenance of a successful status and a

“support your family” continued existence, plus the ability to meet the

financial obligations of fee payment and debt service for Liberty Tax.

THIS FACT CANNOT BE SAID ENOUGH TIMES AND SAID IN

ENOUGH WAYS! The “Seminal and Fundamental Factors” become the

first and obvious facts gleaned from the weekly “Standings Report”, and

literally leap right off the pages at you!

2. The Collateral Fact of that fact and the resultant fact of the dire

insufficiency of Brand Draw is that, for the “average” or “typical” Liberty

Tax franchisee, they are going to undergo early, immediate, continuous,

and decimating cash flow problems which, no matter the amount of the

initial investment and any supplemental and additional cash infusions,

the decimating cash flow problems will either quickly or eventually lead

to a situation where the franchisee “business owner” will no longer be

able to pay their employees, their rent, their utility bills, their payroll

taxes, their personal taxes, their auto insurance, their transportation

expenses - including gas and auto repairs, nor pay down their Royalty

and Advertising fees nor service their franchise debt! This condition

points to a business losing money; and when a business devolves to this

juncture and is unable to accommodate these critical operational factors

and costs, it is OUT OF BUSINESS, a result and condition of which

occurs to Liberty franchisees with such a surprising and questionable

regularity, that one can only be drawn to wonder how and why that is so!

This becomes the first obvious fact gleaned in your first tax season with

Liberty Tax; and second, it becomes an obvious fact from the “Standings

Report”! You will find that you cannot dodge those numbers leaping out

at you! They’re trying to get your attention and tell you something....

except that when YOU are getting to see these telltale numbers, it’s too

late to do anything about them! By then, you’re stuck in the Liberty Tax

quicksand trap and tar pit and you are on your way to business losses

and financial insolvency, oblivion, ruin, and a potential bankruptcy!

3. Here is the Alpha Truism, which frames, undergirds, underscores,

accentuates and EXPLAINS literally everything that can go wrong and

does go wrong to and for a Liberty Tax Franchisee* the average H&R

Block tax office does 1,500 returns at a fee of around a $235 average, or

gross sales of around $352,500 for the average H&R Block office...while

the average Liberty Tax office does fewer than 450 returns at maybe a

$200 average fee, or a gross sales of around $90,000. That is $352,500

versus $90,000, “a quarter ofa million dollars" difference, $262,500, for

the EXACT SAME one hundred and five day tax season! EVERY tax

preparer straddles that EXACT SAME one hundred and five day tax

season, where you have to do well enough to get through those 105 days,

first then be able to sustain your operation for the remaining eight (8)

months, that’s 260 days, out of the sales activity of thati05 day “selling

season”, to remain in business as a functioning and viable entity! The

central fact of this matter is that, in those 105 days, the Liberty Tax

“Brand” does NOT bring in enough tax return business for the average

Liberty Tax office to survive on, for very long! Thus, the central, critical,

and terminal “effect” of that fact is that a Liberty Tax, tax office, is

preordained and predestined to fail, for a lack of a positive cash flow,

operating capital, and profits, due to the insufficient income brought

about by an inadequate Brand Draw, the base minimum draw necessary

for financial success, as the comparison of the “average” H&R Block and

Liberty Tax tax return counts, shockingly reveals! And John Hewitt and

all of the John Hewitt and Liberty Tax following know these facts well,

painfully and embarrassingly, I would think, but categorically dismiss

them* as to acknowledge their existence would be to undermine the idea

of the “legitimate and above board fagade” of this entire John Hewitt and

Liberty Tax “tax preparation scheme, scam, fraud, and spectacle”.

4. But Liberty gets around distasteful and indicting problems like this,

with their creation of the counter-point expression, “You didn’t execute

properly”, meaning that your low return count and financial failure are

a result of something you did not do “properly” in your Marketing and

Advertising - which YOU have to do, because the International Outfit

you are with, does NOT do any of! Whatever issues you may be having,

drawing customers and paying bills, cannot have any bearing on John

Hewitt or Liberty Tax. It has to be on you; cuz it just can’t be on John

or Liberty! Can’t! Has to be You! Cuz that’s “God”you’re talkin bout.

5. But interestingly, and in contrast, opening your Liberty Tax Office

as close to an H&R Block Tax Office as possible, is a staple of Hewitt’s,

called “the Burger King Rule” - that is, Burger King opening as close to

a McDonalds as possible, to tap into the stronger burger eater drawing

power. Potentially, every Liberty Tax territory has an H&R Block office

nearby, since Liberty wants you to open your office as close to a Block

Office as you can. What is interesting about that is that in the five

Liberty Tax territories out near my Eldersburg territory, what I call the

Route 32 Corridor, all five Liberty Tax territories had a successful H&R

Block office already in them, while each of the five Liberty Tax territories

have had TWO failed Liberty Tax operations in them, open, close, and

disappear - most in one season - consisting of five original territories and

five Re-Sales!!!!! There is one exception on the Route 32 Corridor: and

that is that one of the two of Michael Okoye’s offices, in Westminster,

Md., did make it. Funny, my Block Offices drew from 800 to over 1,400

returns, made money, and I did not have to spend $21,000 out on the

streets to try to bring in enough customers to pay the bills, which, as it

turned out, I could NOT PAY at Liberty, no matter what I tried to do or

what it cost me, to try to do it!

Third Telling Element:

And as mentioned in my “Two Year Assessment”, when Liberty Tax is

selling offices at the end of the tax season, it even shows the local Block

Office’s return counts:

Liberty Tax is offering 101 Company Stores for Sale, on a printout dated 5/7/2014; and there are 120

Franchisee Offices for Sale, on a printout dated 6/25/2014. The 6/25 printout shows the return count for

the Liberty Office and the return count of the local Block Office, where applicable. On the 6/25 print out,

the Liberty average return count is 372 returns, and the average Block return count is 1,954. Of 120

Franchisee Offices for Sale, only two did over 1,000 returns! Of the 75 Block offices, only 9 did less than

1,000 returns. So herein lies the root problem of all financial issues facing the majority of struggling

Liberty Franchisees: The Liberty Brand just does not pull the requisite numbers for success; and few

Zees have the wherewithal and stamina, fiscally and physically, to last long enough to wait it out

through years of a costly marketing effort - to gain profitability - when they are confronted by fee

intercepts and are, otherwise, not "profitable enough" to pay Franchise Fees, Royalties, an evasive

"Advertising Fee", and a compounding 18% interest charge on anything not, and unable, to be paid!

“Of 120 Liberty Tax Franchisee Offices for Sale, only two did over 1,000

returns - not even two percent (<2%)! Of the 75 Block offices thrown in

by Liberty as a sales inducement, to prompt another Liberty Franchisee

to buy that Liberty Franchisee’s failed office, “near a Block Office”, only

9 did less than 1,000 returns - 88% of the nearby H&R Block offices

doing over Liberty Tax’s 1,000 return marker and “default Terminator”!

25.

That being the case, you have a clear and very convincing Brand to

Brand competition and comparison in Liberty’s own report. According to the Liberty

Tax FDD and the Agreement, a Liberty Tax Franchisee must eventually be preparing

1,000 tax returns after five years and every year thereafter, making a Prospective

Franchisee salivate at the thought! But, as so much with Liberty, that is more of the

bombast and smoke that gets blown around. As shown in Liberty’s own Office Sale

bulletin, the one Brand dominates the return count, that’s H&R Block, while the

other Brand, that’s Liberty Tax, shows offices for sale which come nowhere close to

the Liberty break-even point of 450 returns, let alone a profitable return count, or

Liberty Tax’s “mandatory” 1,000 return count. The reader MUST GRASP AND

COMPREHEND THIS COMPARISON AND THESE DUPLICITES, LIES, AND

FABRICATIONS IN THE LIBERTY TAX STORY LINE! Read this paragraph two

or three more times, please! The difference in the average return count here is 1.582

returns, in Block’s favor (1,954 - 372 = 1,582). At a Liberty’s $200 average fee, if the

Liberty Tax Office did Block’s return count in Liberty’s own statistics above, that

average Liberty Tax office would realize another $316,400 of gross income. Hell, I

could potentially live on that one tax season of additional income, for the rest of my

life! The return count information above, in Liberty’s own Office Sale bulletin, is

simply repeating, re-emphasizing, and validating the fact that the Liberty Tax

BRAND, after sixteen years in the United States, DOES NOT DRAW ENOUGH

CUSTOMERS TO “KEEP MOST OF ITS FRANCHISEE’S OFFICES IN

BUSINESS”, especially compared to John Hewitt’s demon, H&R Block.

26.

Other than “a few”, maybe 16% max, of the Liberty Tax Franchisees,

“Nobody” is doing a thousand returns at Liberty Tax; and it looks like “nobody” is

even reaching the 450 return Break-Even point, either! Knowing the overwhelming

majority of his franchisees and his franchisee’s tax offices are in a deep state of

chronic fatigue and stage four failure, my three years of losses as a Liberty Tax

Franchisee, of “a quarter of a million dollars”, can be boiled down to John Hewitt’s

thinly disguised attempts and futile and psychotic pursuit of the ghosts of Henry and

Richard Block’s notoriety, accomplishments, and fame! The Liberty Tax business

plan, of pursuing Henry and Richard Block to the grave, and possibly more like a

neurosis than a business plan, is the UNSOUND foundation and FLAWED basis

upon which Liberty Tax, disguised as and impersonating an “authentic” tax

preparation franchisor, is lain over. And that is the most “charitable” explanation

for Liberty’s return count deficit and business threatening franchise failure trait,

which could be given!

27.

I need to ask, “What kind of a Franchisor, in a ‘tax preparation

business’, will sell and Re*Sell territories, when the majority of its productive

territories have long ago been taken up, but, nevertheless, continue to sell

predictably unproductive territories, and then, Re-Sell failed, terminated, lifeless,

and deceased territories, AGAIN, when it is KNOWN the average number of returns

of its offices is BELOW, and SIGNIFICANTLY below, the Break-Even threshold, and

that the number of returns prepared by a “New” and newer office will likely NOT

cover Royalties and Advertising Fees nor Promissory Notes and Accounts Receivables

payments, the very foundation upon which I am being sued!” As shown

below in PROOF POINTS, the 2014 nationwide return average for ALL Liberty Tax

locations is only “423 returns”, while the average number of returns for the most

average, or mean return count of the Liberty locations, is “343 returns”, when the

represented Break-Even for an average Liberty Office is 450 returns! At the average

fee for my first year as a Liberty Tax Franchisee, of $174, the average franchisee is

BEHIND by $18,618, BEFORE incurring any operating expenses! This is a certified

sign of a “loser”! The average Liberty Franchisee and his or her office face the sure

possibility of INSTANT FAILURE! Why is this kind of an ACT in this business ...or

is allowed to REMAIN in this business? [Court, to the extent that it makes any

sense for you, or you are able to play anypart in that thought, please “think” on

that.]

Fourth Telling Element:

In an e-mail I sent last year, called "Statistical Abstractions", I cited the information from the Reports I

noted on the first page of this. These Reports covered the 2012 Tax Season, my first, ending in April 2013.

I'm condensing thousands of words in this paragraph. In the Top 500 Offices (in Net Fees), only 198 did

1,000 returns or more. That's one out of every twenty-one offices, doing more than 1,000 returns - and

older offices mostly, when the Disclosure Document warns that you must be doing 1,000 returns or more

by your fifth year, or you will lose your Franchise, or some such like, dire consequence. One out of

twenty-one, less than five percent! In the Top 100 Offices, 43 of them were, either, in LA or New York

City. One of every four offices of the Top 500, are in either New York City, or LA, with NYC edging out LA

for most offices in the Top 500, at 63. When you subtract the number of returns done by the Top 500,

over 500,000, from the 1,805,000 reported by Darby Schoenfeld, on the Year End Report, ALL OF THE

REST OF THE OFFICES ONLY AVERAGED 343 RETURNS! That's 3,700 offices, or 88% of all Liberty Tax

Offices, averaging only 343 returns! As a fraction, 88% is seven eighths. The last four pages of the Top

500, were averaging returns in the 700s. That means the rest of Liberty's 4,200 offices - that's 3,700 of

them - were likely to be doing from as few as 44 returns, or so, or less, to the upper 600's. Applying a

standard bell curve to those numbers, then something like 2,000 Liberty Offices (1,850) are going to be

doing from 343, up into the high 600s, with the other 1,850 doing less than 343! Sohby Soliman, in

territory 005, had to fold in one year, with just 44 returns. Dwayne Carter Sr. had to also fold in one

year, in office 14275 - that's my present territory, 014, with only 165 returns. Chuck Hines came close to

folding in his first year, too, in territory 014, office 17216, doing only 168 or 169 returns by April, 2013.

Chuck Hines, in his second year in territory 014, did 303 returns by April 18, 2014, and did not quite break

even, even with only a $10,000 rent. The Disclosure Document cites a sample P&L showing an office

breaking even on 315 returns, with a $28,000 rent. So possibly, depending upon your rent, it is

conceivable that the majority of Liberty Tax Offices could not have made a profit in 2013; and 2,000 for

sure, probably lost money and went into the beginning of, or continued in, a potential death spiral. And

I'm guessing for any of the offices taking a Walmart this past season, in 2014, the negative numbers might

have even been greater - that's worse - than they were in 2013.

Fifth Telling Element:

Reader: PLEASE GRASP THE DESTRUCTIVE FORCE OF UNAVOIDABLE

FAILURE WHICH THESE FACTS IMPART ON A STRUGGLING LIBERTY

TAX FRANCHISEE, ESPECIALLY IN THE CRITICAL AREA OF H&R BLOCK

TO LIBERTY TAX COMPARISON IN THE MOST VITAL RETURN COUNT.

* 500 Franchisees, one of every four Liberty Tax Franchisees, cannot even

make Liberty’s “Standings Reports” at the 20th Percentile! 1:4, 20th

* The Liberty Tax “reputed” break-even is 450 returns.

* All the offices for Liberty Tax in 2013 averaged 423 returns per office, 27

RETURNS SHORT and $5,000 SHORT of break-even.

* If you take away the returns of the Top 500 Liberty offices, 12% of the

offices, 1 of 8, the rest of the offices, 3,700, only average 343 returns, 107

returns SHORT and $21,000 SHORT of Break-Even.

* New and newer Liberty Franchisees will ONLY average around a lethal

and fatal 265 returns, 185 returns SHORT and $32,000 SHORT of “just

Breaking-Even”, at the 2013 average Liberty tax preparation fee of $174!

* For a new franchisee...onjy a LETHAL and FATAL 265 returns!!

* You cannot even get to year two with this outcome in your lap in year one!

29.

These facts show that a Liberty Tax Franchisee’s chances of any success

are abysmally low: so low, and so desperate, and so improbable, as to border on the

edge of “Criminal”! Whatever a franchisee’s tenure and situation: new, second year,

third year...the statistics show most New Liberty Franchisee WILL NOT pull the

number of returns to even break even, let alone be profitable. This data CLEARLY

shows that it is almost IMPOSSIBLE to “make it” as a new Liberty Tax Franchisee!

Statistically, unless you are bankrolled or dropped down into a “City” or lower level

economic demographic, which locations, over the years, have already been taken up.

AS A NEW OR NEWER LIBERTY TAX FRANCHISEE, YOU CANNOT MAKE IT!

30.

John Hewitt knows this! Core Members of the Liberty Tax Cabal know

this! The Liberty Area Developers (AD) know this! Tenured Corporate Employees

know this! Liberty Tax Prospects, however, DO NOT KNOW THIS! Unfortunately,

the majority of Liberty Tax Prospects, turned Franchisees, will fatally discover this

fact within the first ninety days of their time, IF NOT within the first forty-five days

of their first tax season, as a budding, then wilting, then dying, then disintegrating

Liberty Tax Franchisee! But this does not stop THIS Franchisor from chasing after

visions of money, fame, and notoriety, at the expense of the depleted time, emptied

pockets, drained resources, shattered dreams, irreplaceable LOSSES, and broken

and crushed Liberty Tax faithful and trusting Franchisee’s LIVES! ... CRIMINAL!

With just these five “Telling Elements” A STORY IS TOLD, WHICH LEADS TO

FAILURE! And, if you knew, there are other stories and other “Telling Elements”

in the Liberty Tax Saga. Regardless of any other stories which a Petition for Writ

of Certiorari requires a Petitioner to cover - with “COMPELLING QUESTIONS”, I

would wonder, with a Question, “With all of the Court Cases Liberty Tax has been

through, WHY and HOW COME is it that this outfit has escaped intact and largely

unscathed, WITHOUT A THOROUGH Judicial Review, especially in the District

Court of Norfolk, where, by the Liberty Tax Franchise Agreement, most Liberty Tax

Court Cases will take place!? IT MAKES ONE “WONDER”! The ANSWER IS, as

I have tried to advance for the last three years, is that unless one has experienced

being a John Hewitt Liberty Tax Franchisee, for themselves

one “DOES NOT

KNOW ENOUGH TO ‘KNOW’”! OR ELSE

another answer could be that there

is something “funny” going on down there in Norfolk!

Being a Liberty Tax Franchisee is like being in and experiencing COMBAT! Boys

DIE in Combat)' and in Liberty Tax, Boys AND Girls, Men and Women, DIE in tax

Combat too, A FINANCIAL DEATH..... A SLOW..... PAINFUL......and AGONIZING

ONE, Tax Season after Tax Season, although so many Liberty Franchisees do not

even last past their first Tax Season! This is why I have constantly asked those

judging me, like Judges and opposing Lawyers, to e-mail me “Ifyou have ever been

in business, for yourself, AND IF YOU HAVE PERSONALLY FINANCED YOUR

SELF, in business? Interestingly, NO ONE, who I have asked that question to, has

e’d me back that they HAVE! No One!

So...not said to, and asked, of the Supreme Court Justices and their helping “law

school students”, is that question, that only an Answer to of “YES”, would qualify a

person to understand and sit in judgement of a person like me, who HAS! Being

in business for one’s self is like an inclusion and membership to a Special Society,

like a brotherhood or sisterhood...a Band of Brothers who survived a Combat, that

OUTSIDERS, who have not been in that combat, think that those who are and have

been, ARE, already, and automatically DO GET RICH!! Some DO get Rich. But

Others..... MOST..... LOSE THEIR ASSES! The “Outsiders” are still Virgins in that

area of life and don’t know the fun that “WINNING” in business can bring..... WHICH

I HAVE KNOWN OF, throughout my life - as my “Resume” details, UP UNTIL John

Hewitt’s Liberty Tax Services SCHEME, SCAM, and FRAUD! Unfortunately and

Sadly, only a slim percentage of the “poor bastards” who try to become “successful”

business people through John’s Liberty Tax Services tax preparation, scheme, scam

and fraud, will ever come to know that thrill!

STATEMENT OF THE CASE - Part I

I’m placing this issue early, as both of the two Courts that I have such

angered doubts about, managed - over the last THREE YEARS - to NOT and

to NEVER discuss this NUMBER ONE ORIGINATING, SEMINAL, BASIC,

CLEARLY EVIDENT, DEMONSTRABLY PROVABLE - AND PROVEN, and

unchallenged seminal FACT of my two Cases.

The Federal Trade commission, the FTC, regulates the “Franchising

Industry”. As a result of frauds and irregularities in that nascent Industry,

the FTC introduced “procedures and steps” into that Sales Industry, designed

to try to lessen or eliminate certain kinds of fraud - by Franchis ORS - in the

SALE of “franchised territories”, through the RE-SALE of previously sold,

occupied, vacated , and possibly FAILED franchised territories. Over time

and usage, those steps and procedures became known as, first, the Uniform

Franchise Offering Circular, UFOC. UFOC attempted to build “purchaser

protections” into the purchase of a “Franchise”, enumerated in an Item 20.

Item 20, in UFOC, was a Big Deal, much like the modern 436.5(t)(6). More

recently, all of these Franchise RE-SALE Protections - that’s RE SALE

PROTECTIONS - became known as “The Rule” - that’s THE Rule! and the

critical, key element and protection in THE RULE, that’s THE, was in a

section numbered 436.5(t)(6). “(t)(6)” states^

(6) If a franchisor is selling a previously-owned franchised outlet now under its control,

disclose the following additional information for that outlet for the last five fiscal years. This

information may be attached as an addendum to a disclosure document, or, if disclosure has

already been made, then in a supplement to the previously furnished disclosure document.

(i) The name, city and state, current business telephone number, if

unknown, last known home telephone number of each previous owner of the outlet;

(ii) The time period when each previous owner controlled the outlet;

(iii) The reason for each previous change in ownership (for example,

termination, non-renewal, voluntary transfer, ceased operations); and if unknown,

last known home telephone number of each previous owner of the outlet;

(iv) The time period(s) when the franchisor retained control of the outlet (for

example, after termination, non-renewal, or reacquisition).

...a number of successive sales of a franchised outlet could indicate ‘churning’,

the practice whereby a franchisor turns a blind eye to franchisee failures - or

worse, encourages them - in order to sell the same outlet repeatedly.

* U

...a possible franchisor strategy to have the franchisee fail in order to resell the

unit”

“Section 436.5(t)(6) of the final Amended Rule extends the original Rule and UFOC

Guidelines Item 20, by addressing turnover at a specific outlet.”

The IDEA IS, that if a Prospective Franchisee is paying $40,000 to a FranchisOR, for a

franchised territory, which is nothing more than metes and bounds drawn on a map, if someone

else had ever operated within those metes and bounds, a FranchisEE of the FranchisOR, HOW

DID THEY, the PREVIOUS and EARLIER FRANCHISEE - DO? In Franchise Law, that

is called real time “Hands on experience operating that outlet”, which a Prospect, purchasing

an outlet, should have the benefit of meeting the previous owner(s), to SEE HOW THEY DID, so

that there would not be any unanticipated, unexpected, unseen, “SURPRISES” or other “SHOES

TO DROP”, when - to initially set this process in motion, the total dollar investment, FOR THE

NEW OWNER of that FranchisOR’S RE-SALE TERRITORY, is going to be the better part of

$100,000 to $120,000! For that kind of money, the purchasing and acquiring NEW OWWNER of

the “franchised territory” would have all expectations of a supposed valid business operation;

and as a FRANCHISE, also, the delivery of customers, cash flow, and profits! This is the reason

why a Franchis OR can demand a “fat” Franchise FEE. A “franchise” is ALREADY an

“existing operation”, a “Franchise”, known to the public and having a reputation and a customer

BASE! What a Franchise is NOT is, is that IT IS NOT A GROUND BREAKING START UP,

WITH NO REPUTATION OR TRACK RECORD OR CUSTOMER BASE!!!....WHICH IS

WHAT A PROSPECT WILL FIND THEY RECEIVE AND ACQUIRE WITH HEWITT’S

LIBERTY TAX SERVICES!....A START-UP, in process of becoming, still, a START-UP!!

As will be stated along the way in this Petition, neither myself nor the other half dozen

Prospects and Franchisees in my marketplace, NOR ANYWHERE ELSE EN AMERICA, were

made aware that we ALL MAY HAVE BEEN PURCHASING A FAILED FRANCHISED

TERRITORY, an EXTREME and EGREGIOUS violation of the most fundamental protections

OF THE RULE! Many of us were paying $40,000 for a FAILED OPERATION, which “John”

and his Liberty Tax Cabal and its Area Developers FULL WELL KNEW ABOUT, ALSO AN

EXTREME AND EGREGIOUS VIOLATION OF THE COMMON LAW DICTUM OF “THE

IMPLIED COVENANT OF GOOD FAITH AND FAIR DEALINGS”. Many Liberty Tax

PROSPECTS and Franchisees WERE ALL SCREWED ON MULTIPLE LEVELS OF TRUST

AND FAITH, all so John Hewitt could keep putting money in his pocket, to feed his “habit”

of “I’ve got money now, and I always will”! That John Hewitt, his confidants, and the upper

levels of Liberty Tax ALL knew they were selling “FAILED LOSERS” as virgin territories,

for good money, THROUGH A BUSINESS, makes that action a RICO CASE!

THAT A - along with gross CONSTITUTIONAL

and FRCP violations by the other side. IS/ARE

THE “STATEMENT OF THE CASE”, which

neither court made itself acquainted with, nor

inspected it, or made them a conversation piece of

the suit, even though I tried hard to do that, in

three Counter-Documents and thousands of pages

of writings!! The last thing Hewitt, Liberty Tax,

Willcox & Savage, and the two user friendly courts

wanted, was for that news of franchise fraud to get

out in a courtroom setting, as potential damages!

I EVENTUALLY FOUND THE FELLOW WHO WAS IN MY METES

AND BOUNDS BEFORE ME; IN MD 014, ELDEERSBURG, MARYLAND.

IF... I would have met this fellow first, Dwayne Carter Senior, as MANDATED

BY THE RULE, with his $100,000 of LOSSES and other serious complaints

and his “Hands On” experiences, I WOULD HAVE NEVER SIGNED ON TO

DO LIBERTY TAX! Thus, I would have probably stayed with Block doing

taxes, at $15,000 per tax season, and I would have stayed in possession of the

$300,000 I went through, trying to be, and become, a successful John Hewitt

Liberty Tax Franchisee! Otherwise, I really do not know what I would have

done! but I would have had $300,000 to do it with, and I would NOT have

LOST $250,000 of that $300,000, caught up in a John Hewitt Liberty Tax

Services con game “tax preparation” scheme, scam, and fraud.

As a Pro Se, I am not going to cite anything other than that which I have

actually lived through and experienced over the last six and a half years. I

also have a 77 year old wife, who is not doing so well, by the circumstances of

our involvement with John Hewitt’s Liberty Tax Services and our business

loss of “a quarter of a million dollars” as one of his Franchisees,' and because of

her conditions, requiring my time, to help her keep going, my time is limited.

For now, I am BROKE and Money is VERY TIGHT! After a couple years with

Liberty, losing money in large chunks, my credit is shot and Collection Calls

never stop. My recently achieved “poor credit” has worked against me in a

couple of situations where I was looking for full time employment, at $86,000

a year, in an industry for which I was qualified. But...poor credit can quickly

DISQUALIFY YOU, like in Banking! $86,000! Ubering will not bring me

that number, and neither will chauffeuring “old ladies” around and cleaning

their houses, God bless them...which - with LOSING SO MUCH MONEY SO

QUICKLY, I could not afford maintenance charges on my 2008 Saturn AND

payments on my new 2014 Chevy Cruze! Thus, IMPOVERISHED, I have lost

my Saturn, and the Cruze Uber Chariot has been repossessed!! But with my

Chauffering and my cleaning routines..... they... these “old Gals”, that is, are

enabling me to keep my nose above water, for now, God Bless them again!

LIFE CAN BE HARD AND HARSH ON THE OTHER SIDE OF

LOSING A QUARTER OF A MILLION DOLLARS TO A WELLOILED CONFIDENCE SCHEME!

The $300,000 which my wife and I had accumulated for when we “got old”...

thanks to John Hewitt’s Liberty Tax Services FRAUD, and'Virginia Court’s

benevolence and near complicity, that old-age buffer is GONE, USED UP, by

my trying desperately, and by the script, to FIND the course and to STAY

THE COURSE to make it in the tax preparation field, to try to create a more

steady and “Pension like” income for myself and my Wife, in our oldest and

final stage of our lives, as a Liberty Tax Franchisee, with multiple Liberty Tax

Services tax offices!

As the Judges would know, my “Case” has been going on for over three

years, since 12/23/2015. Over that three years, no Judge, that is NO Judge...

No, has addressed the basic reason for my Counterclaims, which is that (a) the

Plaintiff failed to inform me that two of the Franchised territories I chose and

purchased for $40,000 each, had already had a Franchisee in it who had failed,

and that the territory I opened, in Eldersburg, MD014, had too, already had a

Franchisee in it, Dwayne Carter Senior, (b) who had failed in one tax season

AND HAD LOST $100,000 IN DOING SO. (c) This Liberty Tax Failure, to

PROPERLY NOTIFY ME of that situation, is a serious violation of the FTC’s

Franchising Rules, known as The Rule, and part “436.5(t)(6)” in particular!

because, (d) if I had known of Carter, and had met with him, and heard his

“Hands On” story, as Liberty should have orchestrated by the FTC’s “Rule”,

I would have NEVER JOINED LIBERTY TAX! By my joining Liberty Tax

Services (e) and wanting to be and become a successful John Hewitt Liberty

Tax Franchisee, I expended over $300,000 and lost “a quarter of a million

dollars” over three tax seasons and four calendar years, 2012 through 2015.

(£) In my suing Liberty Tax, by Countersuit, for me to find a resolution

of all of the issues I faced and alleged, and to repair Liberty’s damages to my

life and to try to make myself financially sound again, (g) AN ANSWER TO

MY COUNTERCLAIM WAS REQUIRED..... and REQUIRED by the Federal

Rules of Civil Procedure, FRCP, Rule 12(a)(1)(B)! However, by filing two and

a half dozen nuisance Motions, the Plaintiff (h) has NEVER ANSWERED

ANY OF THE THREE (3) Counterclaims I filed. NOT ONE (1) ANSWER!

Early in this Case, I filed a Motion for a Jury Trial, (i) but that Motion

was DENIED by Norfolk District Court Judge, Robert J. Krask. That was

after (j) Judge Krask had said that I was in line for a Jury Trial, in early 2016.

I also filed a Motion (k) to ask the Court to force Liberty Tax to ANSWER my

Counters, which such Motion was also DENIED - by Judge Krask! These two

elements, an ANSWER to a Complaint and a Jury Trial are desired for Justice

and the one is REQUIRED under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, FRCP,

and the Federal Trade Commission’s Rules GOVERNING Franchising, called

The Rule. The individuals in charge of, and effecting, this process - which has

been dragging on since June 3, 2015 - that is, opposition Lawyers and Judges

have fulfilled their SWORN charges, by VOW, OATH, and LICENSE, in a

grossly IRRESPONSIBLE and Cavalier manner, bringing serious DAMAGES

to this individual, essentially, through the rules of this legal process, under

their influence, if not, under their “care”, and, as seen with Virginia Judges,

absolutely subject to their “whims”!

My “legal issues” with this process are not limited ONLY to the 7th

Amendment. The other side, including the Courts, meddled and muddled in

my 1st and 5th Amendments also! The other side tried to shut my mouth with

their “Gatekeeper Motion”, “abridging my freedom of speech” while limiting

my ability to “petition the ‘government’” for “redress of my many grievances”.

Think about that! If that sounds like a fantasy reach at first... it ISN’T! A

Big Time Outfit would have a field day with what has gone on in my cases.

Because I am a broke and pauperized Pro Se, my thoughts and grievances are

dropped down to the kindergarten level, making it easy TO JUST GLOSS

OVER ALMOST ANYTHING I AM PUTTING OUT. BUT I HAVE BEEN

SERIOUSLY SCREWED ON MANY “CONSTITUTIONAL” LEVELS DOWN

THERE, that if I had a Big guy behind me, Hewitt and Liberty would have

been nailed to a bathroom wall down there! “Down There” has flushed my

Justice - which I DESERVE - down the toilets of the Norfolk District Court.

I’m hoping the Supreme Court can and will fish that Justice out from where

ever it may have gone to and present it to me, on a platter! It doesn’t have to

be a silver one. It can be fast-food cardboard, but just some kind of platter!

The CONSTITUTIONAL and FRCP violations I have been subject to and have

had to endure, in Virginia Courts, as a Persecution, scream out for JUSTICE

to be served to me.

From my October 18, 2018 “NOTICE OF JUDGMENT” from the COURT

OF APPLEALS FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT, first paragraph, it states that

“Review on writ of certiorari..... will be granted only for ‘compelling reasons’”.

As a newly “legalized” citizen off the streets, as a Pro Se, I do not know enough

about Law to feel sure if my reasons for appealing to the Supreme Court are

“compelling” OR NOT! But, as a long term, life-long non-legalized citizen and

ordinary guy off the streets, I KNOW DAMN WELL WHAT COMPELLING

IS AND FEELS LIKE...IN AND FOR MY CASE! And what happened to me,

in two Virginia Courts, goes so far beyond “Compelling”, to almost be on the

level of the “Good Old Boys” Network shenanigans, which I am intimating I

have been subjected to

as a Criminal’s felonious way of doing business!!

Over the last six and a half years, by Liberty Tax Services, this

Petitioner has been denied both business fulfillment and - over the last

three years - in two Courtly processes down there in Virginia - he has

been DENIED legal fulfillment and JUSTICE, by the legal arm of John

Hewitt’s Liberty Tax Services, the U.S. District Court, in Norfolk, and

the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Richmond; and by those two

experiences, I have been left high and dry and wanting in my quest for

both business success and the potential justice of a financial retribution

through this U.S. Citizen’s Constitutionally guaranteed 7th Amendment

Right to a Jury Trial...of his peers! From these two experiences, I am

ready to infer that the entire legal process, “down there”, in Virginia,

with this Supplicant/Petitioner losing “a quarter of a million dollars”

under Liberty, while Liberty Tax just Slithered Away from the disaster it

had imposed upon this individual.....which such a “slither” was an illicit

and unconstitutional outcome that, I believe, was preordained aU along,

in the cards and in John Hewitt’s and Liberty Tax’s long history of suits,

“spirited along” in their Home Boy’s home state, home town, and Home

Court! YES, I can believe in and envision “collusions” at that level!

As written in the Liberty Tax Franchise Agreement, all Liberty Tax suits will

go through the Norfolk District Court of Judges Smith and Krask and the Willcox &

Savage PC Law Firm. Liberty Tax has been a party to SO MANY SUITS that All of

these people have to have more than just a token knowledge of each other. I think and am suggesting - that they would almost have to be on a BFF basis, on their cell

phones, and at least, know what each other looks like, if not know the individual

habits and favorite dining and schmoozing places, and maybe even the chosen place

of worship of each other. I’m suggesting they would almost be synchronized with

each other, working together like teams of horses, pulling the John Hewitt/Liberty

Tax Services Law Suit Wagon around, being so heavy and laden with so many suits,

like MINE! After years of interacting, all of these disparate individuals have to have

become “close”, so close as to almost be like actors in a play regardless of the story

line of that play, as long as John and Liberty come out on top, at the end of the story,

ending in a Court, the US District Court in Norfolk * the end justifying the means!

But reaching that end could prove difficult facing an equivalent opponent; but

reaching that end against a Pro Se, could be fun for everyone on Liberty’s side, if not

an “easy one-sided” victory. That...is the game I have played in, down there, over

the last thirty-seven MONTHS, literally an UNACKNOWLEGED and UNSPOKEN

PERSECUTION! Your Honors, Please Review the Docket Sheets, especially the

actions after ECF 65, which created a whirlwind of activity, swirling to the Plaintiff

walking away from the Case and the Court SHUTTING IT DOWN, IN LOCKSTEP

.....EXONERATING John Hewitt and Liberty Tax and saving them from facing up to

the criminal nature of their tax preparation franchised territory RE-SALE “scheme,

scam, and fraud” operation, in a Trial of MY Peers!

“COMPELLING”

The information piece from the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals states,

“Review on writ of certiorari is not a matter of right, but of judicial discretion, and

will be granted only for compelling reasons.” Also, on the second page of that same

notice, four factors are stated for a “REHEARING” at the Appeals Court. I believe

three of those four factors are fundamental and relevant to my issues with the two

Virginia Courts, through which my matters have traveled: (l) a material factual or

legal matter was [overlooked ', (3) the opinion conflicts with a decision of the U.S.

Supreme Court, or another court of appeals, and the conflict was [not addressed',or

(4) [the case involves one or more questions ofexceptional importance^.

What is “Compelling”? The Norfolk Court DENIED me of mv 7^ Amendment

Right to a Jury Trial of mv peers! That...is much more than “Compelling”! That...is

more like CRIMINAL! So, let’s start with a Constitutional infraction, supervised by

Judge Krask of the Norfolk District Court. The 7th Amendment of the Bill or Rights

of the Constitution of the United States states, “In suits at common law, where the

value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars (and was, in fact, in excess of “a

quarter of a million dollars”in 2015money and value) the right of a trial by jury

shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise reexamined in any

Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.” Despite

the clear and purposeful language of the CONSTITUTION of the United States,

Judge Krask, of the Norfolk District Court, DENIED my Motion for a Jury Trial!

Judge Krask, on his own, DENIED me of one of my Rights from the “Bill of Rights”,

while overturning the U.S. Constitution, which expressly says, “the right of a trial by

jury shall be preserved”! PRESERVED, it says, not irresponsibly Denied!

Also, quoting the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, Rule 38, “Right to a Jury

Trial; Demand” (a) Right Preserved.

The right of trial by jury as declared by the Seventh Amendment to the Constitution or as provided by federal statute - is preserved to the parties inviolate.”

INVIOLATE. it says, not irresponsibly and conveniently Denied!

God bless the US Constitution. It preserved this jury trial Right for me, a

U.S. citizen and a Defendant in a Case...it preserved it for me inviolate! Inviolate,

the US Constitution says. INVIOLATE! But yet, apparently, Judge Krask, of the

Norfolk District Court, on his own and unilaterally...apparently Judge Krask does

NOT consider the 7th Amendment of the Constitution to be an inviolate right on MY

behalf, for ME. Judge Krask, in ECF 50, summarily DENIED my Motion for a Jury

Trial - as well as other significant “Constitutionally related” Motions, after claiming

“I was in line” for a Jury Trial, in a comment in a very early R & R of his. By Judge

Krask, I was unconstitutionally Denied A Jury Trial. A Constitutional Right!

Say What?!

Denied A Jury Trial. A Constitutional Right

Right there with Judge Krask DENYING me of my right to a Jury Trial - a

Constitutional Issue ■ where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars

{and did, in fact, exceed $20, and was, in fact, in excess of “a quarter ofa million

dollars” in 2015 money and value, which looks like this, $250,000) the Plaintiff in my

suit, and the Plaintiffs Lawyers and Law Firm, Willcox & Savage, P.C., neither of

them ANSWERED my Counterclaims, three (3) of them. The Plaintiff in my suit

not only failed to ANSWER my Counter documents..... but it blatantly REFUSED to

ANSWER any of my Counters

NOT ONLY IN THE REQUIRED TWENTY-ONE

DAYS. BUT NOT EVEN IN THE PAST THIRTY-ONE MONTHS! thirty-one (31)

MONTHS! NOT EVEN IN 31 MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Count em! MONTHS!

TWO AND A HALF YEARS WITHOUT ANSWERING ANY OF THE THREE

COUNTER-DOCUMENTS OF THE “DEFENDANT”. The two Virginia Courts

did, and have done, NOTHING about this, as it certainly appears as though the

Defendant, Hines, must have been “scheduled” or “slated” to be the Vanquished by

joint efforts of the “Virginia Network”! The two Virginia courts did NOTHING about

obvious Plaintiff side failures - in adhering to the Constitution and the FRCP - but to

accelerate the path of my programed demise, subsequent to Chief Judge Smith’s ECF

65 04/05/2017 ORDER! This is a “HARD TO UNDERSTAND” Constitutional issue

...and A VERY SERIOUS Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (FRCP) infraction, TOO!

Combine them, and IT IS CRIMINAL, no matter how the hell you look at it! I think

the history of Liberty Tax and John Hewitt suits in these two Virginia Courts, should

be “looked into” - by a troop of legally knowledgeable aides - to search for potentially

criminal malfeasance! Something is just not “right” with what has happened to me,

“In Court”, over the last three years, in Hewitt Country, down there in Virginia!!!

Q! Can a Citizen Party to a suit enjoy the guarantee to a Right - of a trial by jury - if

the “other side” does not provide - AND REFUSES TO PROVIDE, AN ANSWER to a

complaint or Counterclaim, as instructed by the FRCP, which, one would think, “the

Court” is there to monitor, protect, and enforce the procedures, Rules, and Mandates

of the FRCP? Can they?

Q! Can a Citizen Party to a suit enjoy the fruits of JUSTICE - of a trial by jury - if

the “other side” does not provide - AND REFUSES TO PROVIDE - AN ANSWER to

a complaint or Counterclaim, as instructed by the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure,

which, one would think, “the Court” is there to monitor, protect, and enforce the

procedures, Rules, and Mandates of the FRCP? Can they?

Q! If the “other side” does not provide AN ANSWER to a complaint or Counterclaim,

as instructed in the FRCP, and does NOT provide AN ANSWER, NOT IN TWENTYONE DAYS, BUT RATHER, NOT EVEN IN THIRTY-ONE (31) MONTHS...would

that action, by INACTION, not qualify to be a DEFAULT?!....which, one would think,

“the Court” would certainly HAVE TO SEE “DEFAULT” IN THAT “INACTION” and

monitor, protect, and enforce the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, in such a Case, by

moving to GRANT a Motion FOR A DEFAULT JUDGEMENT, by the affected Party,

having been deprived of Constitutional and Federal Procedural Rights?? Huh?

Q! But what does a Citizen Party do when they are confronted by an uncharted,

unscheduled, unsettling situation - and a Court - where it seems as though the

familiarity, geography, and the pedigree of the parties matters more than do the

Facts, history, consequences, and the prevailing and applicable LAWS affecting the

Matters at issue in that Court? What? What!?

Q! When the facts and words of a Citizen Party go unacknowledged in a suit and

they are “shut out” and “The Court” seemingly “takes sides”, the OTHER SIDE....

and does so with sophomoric “citation gusto”, Who does the Citizen Party turn to?

Who, if not YOU?

INFRACTION...VIOLATION...OVERSIGHT...it’s all the same “Down There”

in Hewitt Country! CONSTITUTIONAL infraction, FEDERAL RULES (FRCP)

infraction... OVERSIGHT, by not paying a damn bit of attention to, nor recognizing.

any of the Defendant’s valid and lawful written Complaints, in three (3) CounterDocuments... VIOLATIONS of the Professional Codes of Conduct of the States of

Maryland and Virginia...ETHICAL VIOLAGTIONS all around

they all just

passed through the two Virginia Courts, without Notice or mention or any Corrective

Action, a result apparently expected, waited on, and condoned by ALL on the other

side of my Case: Lawyers, Law Firm, and Judges alike. That...is vintage “Good Ole

Boy” Justice, for the “Good Ole Boy”, home town Homie, and local celebrity, John

Hewitt! The treatment of this individual Defendant, at the Norfolk District Court,

with minor variation, was almost out of the book of - excuse me...“Bull Connor”!

In short, here are matters which I experienced with the Norfolk District Court

AND the Richmond Appeals Court, which easily fit into one or more of the following

categories: “compelling, overlooked, not addressed, and of exceptional importance”. I

am conflicted at this moment, as, in my original March 15, 2017, “Amended CounterComplaint”, on pages 8 and 9, I listed sixty items or factors, which are integral to the

12/23/2015 suit, Civil No. 2:l5cv558 RBS-RJK. Sixty, with an additional 170 pages

of explanations of them! Those sixty factors were never 1) brought up, 2) inspected,

or 3) addressed. They were all, only, en mass and with no other ruling or effect.....

DISMISSED by Judge Krask, in the Court’s frantic race to fabricate FRCP violations

of Rules 6, 8, 10 and a to z, of the Defendant’s pleading style, TO PREVENT THIS

CASE FROM EVER OPENING IN COURT; to cultivate Rules 6, 8 and 10 violations,

by the Defendant, to build a reason for Dismissal with a friendly, if not compliant

Court; TO CLOSE OUT THIS CASE; and, as an “unintended” effect, to DEPRIVE

THE DEFENDANT OF JUSTICE; and finally, to AWARD John Hewitt and Liberty

Tax with a “scheduled”, and CUSTOMARY AND UNEARNED WALK AWAY’!

Then, here, and more recently...

* through two Courts, I have been CHEATED OUT OF A JURY TRIAL

* through two Courts, I have been CHEATED OUT OF JUSTICE

* 11/17/16 ECF 44 Motion for a Jury Trial by Hines

* 01/18/17 ECF 50 Motion for a Jury Trial, by Hines, DENIED by Norfolk

District Court Judge Robert J. Krask

* Filing of Defendant Counterclaims, 02/08/17; 03/15/17; 08/28/17.

* Not the Plaintiff, nor the Plaintiff s Lawyers or Law Firm have deigned

to ANSWER ANY of Defendant’s three (3) Pro Se Counter Documents!!!

* 04/05/17 ECF 65 “ORDER denying 56 Motion to Dismiss; denying 62

Motion to Strike. Pursuant to Rule 15(a)(2), Hines’ motion to amend is

GRANTED. The Partial and Full Counter-Complaints, filed on February 8,

2017, are superseded by the Amended Counter-Complaint submitted to the

Court on March 15, 2017, ECF NO. 60. Accordingly, Liberty’s Motion to

dismiss Hines’ Partial and Full Counter-Complaints, ECF No. 56, and

motion to strike untimely pleadings and dismiss counterclaim for failure

to comply with Court’s Order, ECF No. 62, are both DENIED as MOOT.

Liberty is ORDERED to respond to the amended counterclaim, ECF No. 60,

within twenty-one (21) days. Signed by Chief District Judge Rebecca Beach

Smith and filed on 4/5/17.” [I think this ORDER has an importance that

has been overlooked and swept aside in this matter; because even though

Chief Judge Smith did not use the word ANSWER, I believe she would have

thought her ORDER to “respond to the amended counterclaim, ECF No. 60”,

in 21 davs”. would have logically and technically meant - AND ALSO BE

TAKEN BY THE Plaintiffs side - to mean, for Liberty to ANSWER ECF No.

60! This is Chief Judge Smith speaking, instructing, and ORDERING a

response, right out of the FRCP “in twenty-one (21) days”, and that is Rule

12(a)(1)(B) of the FRCP, which I will bring in and quote next.

* Rule 12(a)(1)(B) states(a) Time to Serve a Responsive Pleading

(l) In General. Unless another time is specified by this Rule or a

Federal statute, the time for serving a responsive pleading is as

follow:

(B) A party must serve an answer to a counterclaim or crossclaim within

21 days being served with the pleading that states the counterclaim

or crossclaim.

Note; Rule 12 and any sub number, such as a hypothetical and non-existent

Rule 12(a)(5) DOES NOT SAY, “If you do not feel like serving an ANSWER

BECAUSE OF THE DAMAGE THAT ANSWER COULD WROUGHT

UPON YOUR CLIENT, serving a “timely filed Motion” under 12(a)(4) still

does NOT mean you DO NOT have to ultimately come to an ANSWER.

12(a)(4) may postpone an ANSWER beyond twenty-one (21) days; but it

DOES NOT SAY THAT A PARTY NEVER - AS IN NEVER EVER - HAS TO

SERVE AN ANSWER! IT DOES NOT SAY THAT. Going on, now, thirtysix MONTHS, not days, 36 MONTHS, without serving an ANSWER to any

of three (3) Counterclaims, IS PREPOSTEROUS AND INTENTIONAL, and

makes a joke out of the FRCP and a mockery of the other parties to the suit,

including Judge Smith and her ORDER! This is a purposeful action, which

everyone in the Case can see through, which deserves SANCTIONING!

* 05/30/17 ECF 75 Defendant’s Motion asking the Court to force Liberty to

ANSWER, NOT RESPOND TO, BUT ANSWER Defendant’s Counterclaim!

* 06/02/17 ECF 76 Defendant’s Motion asking the Court to force Liberty to

ANSWER, NOT RESPOND TO, BUT ANSWER Defendant’s Counterclaim

DENIED by Judge Krask [this is Judge Krask speaking, two days from 7$

* NONE of my three Counterclaims were ANSWERED in twenty-one (21)

DAYS, in violation of the Rules of the FRCP, Rules 1,11,12 minimally

* NONE of my three Counterclaims have been ANSWERED in thirty-one (31)

MONTHS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! thirty-one... MO NTHS... (31)... in a severe

violation of the FRCP and obvious Constitutional issues as well, interfacing

with the 7th- 5th,and the 1st Amendment of the Bill of Rights!! Yes...think

about it! The other side has spared no effort to SILENCE MY SPEECH, BY

not Answering me on any of my three (3) Counterclaims, ANSWERING ME,

that is, as required by theFRCP, and on 10/20/17, with ECF 104, a childish

MOTION for an Entry of Gatekeeping Order, an underhanded and GuiltRidden effort for trying to silence the Pro Se Defendant for disclosing John

Hewitt’s and Liberty Tax’s fraudulence and endemic Unlawful violations of

the FTC’s 436.5(t)(6) Franchise RE-SALE Rule and procedures!

* 07/13/17 MEMORANDUM OF “THE NEED TO SAY’ AND “SHOW AND

TELL”...DEFENDANT’S REACTION TO PLAINTIFFS FIFTEENTH (15TH)

ATTEMPT TO DEFEAT DEFENDANT’S ECF 60. Think of that, fifteenth

attempts to “DEFEAT” a Counterclaim Chief Justice Smith ORDERED to

be responded to in twenty-one (21) days, THREE MONTHS EARLIER, ON

04/15/17, Just ANOTHER VIOLATION OF THE FRCP by the Plaintiff,

Rules 1, 11, and 12. [I have to say it this way: Rather than following - what

I believe to be is - the spirit of Chief Judge Smith’s ORDER, these bastards

spent ninety days filing nuisance Motions against ECF 60, KNOWING,

THAT WITHOUT AN ANSWER. THE CASE COULD NOT GO FORWARD

AND THAT A TRIAL, JUSTICE, AND THE 7™ AMENDMENT OF THE

US CONSTITUTION AND MULTIPLE RULES OF THE FRCP WERE

BEING MOCKED, BRUTALIZED, BURIED, AND NULLIFIED!

* 10/13/17 ECF 102 DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR SANCTIONS AGAINST

WILLCOX & SAVAGE PC

* 10/20/17 ECF 104 MOTION for Entry of Gatekeeping Order by Plaintiff,

an underhanded way for trying to silence the Pro Se Defendant

* 10/23/27 ECF 106 DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR TRANSCRIPTS OF

MAGISTRATE JUDGE KRASK’S CONFERENCE CALL OF 06/02/17

* 11/08/17 ECF 111 ORDER DENYING DEFENDANTS MOTION FOR

TRANSCRIPTS

* 12/04/17 ECF 116 DEFENDANT’S MOTION FOR DEFAULT

JUDGEMENT AGAINST PLAINTIFF LIBERTY TAX.

* 01/26/18 ECF 126 DEFENDANT’S MOTION TO MEET WITH THE

COURT TO DISCUSS A POTENTIAL CLASS ACTION AND RICO

* 02/23/18 ECF 129 Accordingly, defendant’s Motion for Default Judgement

is denied

* As all of the “Legalized Individuals” of these two Cases, that is Lawyers,

Law Firm, and Judges would know quickly and axiomatically... JUSTICE

CANNOT be achieved and delivered in a Court Case, without Complaints

AND ANSWERS, without all sides playing fairly, with none of the parties

“working in concert around the ‘ironclad Rules’” supposedly circumscribing

the process and The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, especially Rule 12!

* The “Legalized Individuals” of these two Cases, that is Lawyers, Law Firm,

and Judges, are bound by Maryland’s and Virginia’s Professional Codes of

Conduct, requiring an allegiance to the Constitution of the United States

and other High Sounding Principals and subscriptions on the part of all the

parties acting in the two cases above, Lawyers and Judges, in particular.

However, few of these ideas of “Professional Conduct” were in evidence or

were followed, by the Virginia Courts, in many of the twists, turns, and

instances of the two Cases! Especially, painfully, and strangely evident

with these two Courts was the Case’s failure to follow the dictates of the US

Constitution and the mandates of the FRCP, resulting in the betrayal of

the Defendant’s availability to the Bill of Rights of the CONSTITUTION,

and more specifically, the “INVIOLATE” 7th Amendment to that document,

THE guaranteed Right of aJury Trial of*his peers!

* There is an FTC rule, 436.5(t)(6), which FranchisORS are required to follow,

which Liberty Tax seems to have a history of sidetracking. This information

is detailed in my three (3) Counterclaims and most of my other writings, and

IT would be devastating to John Hewitt and his Liberty Tax; but yet NONE

OF THIS INFORMATION AND ITS TRACK RECORD BASICALLY

WHAT IS THIS ENTIRE CASE - made it into ANY CONVERSATION OF

EITHER OF THE TWO COURTS IN QUESTION!

* The “gist” of much of the above paragraphs is this: The FTC, the Federal

Trade Commission, oversees the fairly new and recent Franchising

Industry; and because that industry had become rife with bad actors and

fraudulent kinds of business transactions and questionable activities of

FranchisORS, the FTC came to put together guidelines for franchising

which came to be called“The Rule”, as in THE Rule...the one and only

RULE! Part “436.5(t)(6)” of The Rule - THE KEY AND OPERATIVE

SECTION - states:

“As explained below, again, this provision is designed to prevent fraud in the resale

of a specific franchised outlet, by giving prospective purchasers of that outlet, sources

of information with ‘hands-on experience’ operating the outlet”. Here is an expanded

version of this provision, (t)(6: