Judge Won't Sanction Lawyer for Angry Calls, Says Fee Feud Must End
A federal judge in Philadelphia has refused to sanction a lawyer for making angry phone calls to his opponent in a fee dispute.
U.S. District Judge Jan DuBois said in two opinions last week that lawyer John Peoples had not left a phone message since June 2006 so he would not be held in contempt for violating a temporary restraining order, the Legal Intelligencer reports. The May 2005 order had barred Peoples from having any contact or communication with lawyer Howard Langer.
The two men settled their fee dispute in 2004 when Langer agreed to pay Peoples $2.9 million out of a fund for attorney fees in a class action that alleged price fixing in the market for corrugated paper products. As liaison counsel, Langer was authorized by DuBois to decide how to distribute the money.
In the June 2006 phone message, Peoples said: “I didn’t forget you.” In a hearing, Peoples said he left the voice mail but it wasn’t threatening, the story says. When asked why he left the message Peoples said: “It’s just almost every night I think about this case, and I just bubble over with anger and it’s–you can’t make it go away.”
In his opinions, DuBois denied all pending motions in the case, including a request for sanctions against Peoples and a request that DuBois recuse himself for an alleged improper relationship with Langer.
“The myriad of motions relate to a fee dispute between Peoples and Langer that was settled almost four years ago,” DuBois wrote. “This drawn out personal quarrel between the two of them must end. It warrants no further imposition on the judicial system.”
