By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//August 1, 2014//
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
Civil
Civil Procedure — sanctions
Attorneys can be held jointly and severally liable for each other’s sanctions.
“The relevant question thus relates to the scope of responsibility undertaken by each individual attorney. In our case, the district court found that while Steele and Hansmeier were not listed on every court document, the evidence showed that they were “in cahoots” with Duffy and worked with him to use the judicial system for a legally meritless claim. Their efforts seem to have continued in this court. While both Steele and Hansmeier now contend that they showed up in this case only after the federal proceedings were underway, the record shows that both were also involved in the shadows of the state court proceedings. Steele called AT&T’s counsel about the subpoenas, and he appeared and argued against the ISPs’ motion to quash and motion to stay. Hansmeier appeared at a conference before a magistrate judge and was the sole signatory of the 10?page opposition to the ISPs’ motion for the stay of discovery. While Steele and Hansmeier insist that they had only minimal activity with this case, the district court did not abuse its discretion when it found otherwise.”
Affirmed.
13-3801 and 14-1682 Lightspeed Media Corp. v. Smith
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Illinois, Murphy, Herndon, JJ., Wood, J.