By: WISCONSIN LAW JOURNAL STAFF//October 23, 2014//
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit
Civil
Civil Procedure — sanctions
Where the merits of the case were close, the district court did not abuse its discretion in not awarding sanctions.
“The facts of IDS are quite different from the facts here. In this case, the district court did not deny Block’s motion for attorney’s fees pursuant to any personal hostility to sanctions, but rather applied a bad faith standard by stating, ‘I know the case. I did not find anything that comes remotely close that there was no basis for the lawsuit or that it was in bad faith.’ Further, rather than expressing doubt about whether the claims in the lawsuit had any merit, the district court acknowledged that its summary judgment decision was a close call by stating, ‘I entered summary judgment in this case … . And I might be right, I might be wrong on that summary judgment … .’ Simply put, the case before us is too distinct from IDS to dictate a finding that the district court abused its discretion by denying Block’s motion for attorney’s fees. Furthermore, Block fails to offer any additional compelling support for this argument.”
Affirmed.
13-3906 & 14-1097 nClosures Inc. v. Block & Co. Inc.
Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Der-Yeghiayan, J., Flaum, J.