Disbarred lawyer Stan Chesley sues former fen-phen clients in bid to block collection of about $25M
Former Cincinnati lawyer Stanley Chesley has sued five former fen-phen clients, as well as their lawyer, in a bid to stop collection of a $42 million judgment for which he is jointly and severally liable.
The lawyer trying to collect the judgment on behalf of the plaintiffs, Angela Ford, has said Chesley owes about $25 million for the uncollected portion of the judgment. She won a temporary stay of Chesley’s suit from the Ohio Supreme Court on Thursday as it considers her petition to remove the local judge from the case, the Louisville Courier-Journal reports.
Ford won the $42 million judgment on behalf of fen-phen clients who alleged their lawyers took excessive attorney fees in litigation over the diet drug.
Ford contends Judge Robert Ruehlman has “demonstrated he does not recognize the jurisdiction of any other court, nor … the bounds of his own.” Ruehlman had issued a temporary order blocking collection of the judgment in Ohio and had scheduled a hearing on a permanent injunction for Sept. 30.
Chesley’s suit contends he doesn’t know how much money he owes or how much Ford has already collected. A judge ruled last year that Chesley is responsible for the unpaid portion of the $42 million judgment. Chesley is appealing that ruling, but he did not post an appeal bond.
Ford contends in court papers that Chesley has all the information he needs about money due to the plaintiffs, and he is seeking to delay collection so he can dissipate his assets. She says she has collected about $17 million of the judgment from other former lawyers who were also found to have charged excessive fees.
Chesley was disbarred in 2013 in Kentucky for taking an “unreasonable” $20 million fee to help negotiate a $200 million settlement on behalf of plaintiffs who took the fen-phen diet drug before it was taken off the market. A contingency fee agreement had entitled Chesley to no more than $14 million.
Combined fees for Chesley and three other plaintiffs’ lawyers in the drug litigation amounted to about half of the settlement. Two of the plaintiffs’ lawyers were convicted of fraud for keeping settlement money that should have gone to their clients; Chesley was never prosecuted.
