Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Attorney, landlord wage 12-year fight

By: Eric Heisig//August 16, 2013//

Attorney, landlord wage 12-year fight

By: Eric Heisig//August 16, 2013//

Listen to this article

A case that began as a landlord-tenant dispute has erupted into a 12-year battle in the Milwaukee courts system with allegations of aggressive prosecution and evading a debt by any means necessary.

The dispute centers on two lawsuits filed in Milwaukee County Circuit Court regarding unpaid rent and late fees that attorney David Kingstad owes to Mark Carstensen, of Wyndham Properties LLC and Mark E. Carstensen Construction Inc., both in Franklin.

Kingstad rented office space from Carstensen in Franklin in the late 1990s and either routinely failed to pay his rent or did so late, according to court filings. Kingstad, according to filings, also did not pay Carstensen money to build out the office, and Carstensen terminated the lease in 2000.

In August 2008, Circuit Judge Richard Sankovitz ordered Kingstad’s firm, Kingstad Law Offices LLC, to pay more than $100,000 in damages, fees and court costs to Carstensen. That judgment was upheld on appeal.

However, Kingstad has yet to pay the judgment, according to court filings. Kingstad Law Offices was dormant by the time Sankovitz’s judgment was issued. In 2004, Kingstad started a new firm, Kingstad Law Firm LLC, and did all of his business through the new company.

So while the first lawsuit was being appealed, Carstensen filed a second in December 2008 against Kingstad’s new firm to collect the payment, alleging, according to court filings, the attorney created the new firm, “with actual intent to hinder, delay and defraud plaintiffs …”

“It’s very unfortunate this has taken this long for the plaintiffs to get satisfied the judgment they are entitled to collect and which has been upheld by the appellate courts of this state,” said Michael Huitink, a Milwaukee attorney with Godfrey & Kahn SC who is representing Carstensen, who filed for bankruptcy in 2011.

Kingstad declined to talk at length about the case. But he said his new office constitutes an entirely different law firm. He said Kingstad Law Offices still exists because “it’s still owed money.”

According to an Aug. 7 pre-trial report, Kingstad claims the new firm was created when he “lost his long-time associate, terminated virtually his entire staff [and] refocused his entire law practice.”

He alleges in the report that this case is an example of “how overly-aggressive plaintiffs using over-priced lawyers can manipulate and abuse the legal system to unjust ends.”

“It is defendant’s contention that the entire 13-year pattern of litigation perpetuated by the plaintiffs both in this case and the prior eviction case amounts to simple harassment and abuse of process that should not be condoned by this court or any jury,” according to Kingstad’s pre-trial report.

Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Karen Christenson took over the case in August. A trial set for next month was vacated, and the next pretrial conference will be held Sept. 19.

And the matter continues to encounter numerous delays as court filings pile up.

Court records show Kingstad has filed a counterclaim against Carstensen’s companies and numerous motions since the lawsuit was filed in 2008. Those motions were regularly followed by filings either in support or opposition, and it took some time for a judge to rule on each motion.

Kingstad also attempted to pursue a third-party complaint against Huitink and Godfrey & Kahn, though a judge dismissed the claim.

But the references to the case’s long history continue to appear in court filings.

According to an Aug. 5 pre-trial report by Huitink, the case “simply involves whether or not Kingstad Law Firm LLC should be held liable for the judgment as Kingstad Law Offices SC’s successor, mere continuation or alter ego.”

“This is a classic case,” according to the report, “in which the corporate fiction created to defraud creditors can, and should, be ignored.”

— Follow Eric on Twitter

 

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests