John Mize always said his science training would come in handyeven at the West Virginia University College of Law.
The second-year law student and former biologist on Tuesday (March 9) walked away with the college’s prestigious Baker Cup for successfully arguing a mock case before the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.
In science you have to be totally analytical,said Mize, a Green Sulphur Springs native who worked three years as a biologist for the U.S. Department of Agriculture after earning his biology degree from West Liberty State College in 1999.You have to consider every single bit of information, or data. The whole thing will fall apart if you don’t.
Considering every bit of data was something Mize definitely had to do, as he argued before Justices Larry Starcher, Robin Davis, Joseph Albright and Warren McGraw. Chief Justice Elliot Maynard, who had heard cases with his fellow justices earlier in day as part of the high court’s annual visit to WVU , was unable to attend the afternoon competition.
The mock trial, Johns v. Pointcenter Human Services Inc., pitted Mize against Joy Mega of Lavalette and was a case heavy on emotion. In the scenario, theplaintiff,Jennifer Johns, sued her former employer, a drug rehabilitation center, saying she was fired after being wrongly labeled a drug addict who couldn’t properly do her job.
Johns was a former heroin and methadone user who turned her life around to earn a degree in psychology, which was the ticket for the recovering addict to a counseling job at the center.
She also came down with multiple sclerosis, and the OxyContin that was prescribed for her degenerative neuromuscular condition was what led to her firing. She failed a company drug test while taking the medicationeight times the normally prescribed dosage as per her physician’s ordersso she sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Pointcenter countersued, saying Johns made numerous mistakes on the job, including one glaring one in which she deemed the home of a clientclean and supportivewhen in fact, the husband of that client was making crack cocaine on the premises.
She also obtained a second OxyContin prescription from an emergency room physician, while failing to divulge she was already under another doctor’s care.
I just tried to anticipate everything the justices were going to ask,said Mize, who represented Pointcenter.And you had to consider everything, like I said.
Mize lives in Fairmont with his wife, Janet, and children, Kaitlyn and Jordan.
His name will be engraved on the Baker Cup, to go with the $500 prize and official plaque commemorating the day.
I can’t tell you how many hours we both put into this,said Mega, the runner-up.It was a little intimidating, but it’s also such a wonderful opportunity to get a chance like that, actually going before the court.
Mega, who earned a history degree from Marshall University in 1999, has worked as a paralegal and law clerk at firms in Charleston and Huntington. She’s also a teaching assistant in the College of Law’s Legal Research and Writing Department, while serving as fund-raising chair for the Class of 2005.
The Baker Cup Endowment was established in 1980 to acknowledge second-year law students for their case law prowess. It was created by the daughters of Judge George Coleman Baker, who went on to a distinguished career in Morgantown after earning a WVU law degree in 1886.