JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - A federal appeals court has scolded Chief U.S. District Judge Hon. Henry Wingate for taking more than six years to enter a final judgment in a civil case.

The Clarion-Ledger reports that a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals commented about Wingate in its decision affirming the 2002 jury award of more than $1.3 million to Jimmy Ford of Brandon, in a lawsuit filed against his then-employer, Diversified Technology, Inc.

In a footnote to its decision released earlier this month, the panel said, ‘‘the district court sat on the verdict for six and one half years before it entered a judgment. It is truly regrettable that the plaintiff has been denied his just recovery for these several years by the lack of judicial diligence.''

Wingate acknowledged the mistake, but he said he thought the judgment had been entered in the case. He said no one brought to his attention that one hadn't been issued.

‘‘I take responsibility for it,'' Wingate told the newspaper Wednesday.

A message left at the office of Ford's attorney wasn't immediately returned Thursday.

The appeals court said there is no reason in the record nor any reason offered by Wingate's court response to Ford's 2008 petition.

‘‘This is not the first time such inexcusable delays have occurred in that court,'' the panel wrote. ‘‘We urge the court to be more responsive and responsible to its duties and to the litigants.''

The panel wrote that the court should ask for assistance when it's unable to fulfill its duties in a timely manner.

The three-judge panel included Hon. E. Grady Jolly, whose office is in the same federal courthouse in Jackson where Wingate and other district judges preside.

Wingate said no one from the 5th Circuit communicated with him before the court issued the opinion with the footnote.

‘‘I had a hearing on it as soon as I got a letter,'' Wingate said.

Final judgment was issued in 2008 after the hearing.

Ford had accused Diversified Technology Inc. of demoting him because he did not impede an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation of the company.

After he filed his own EEOC complaint, Ford said he was the only employee denied a routine bonus and was fired when litigation began. He had worked there 15 years.