Judge says Facebook has right to sue DLA Piper and other firms for representing now-fugitive Ceglia
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Facebook Inc. and founder Mark Zuckerberg can pursue civil litigation against DLA Piper and other law firms that represented Paul Ceglia in a fraudulent claim of ownership of the social media site, a New York state court judge ruled Monday.
Milberg and Lippes Mathias Wexler Friedman also are named as defendants in the case, in which Facebook alleges that the law firms “conspired to file and prosecute a fraudulent lawsuit … based on fabricated evidence, for the purpose of extorting a lucrative and unwarranted settlement.”
The firms either declined to comment or did not respond to requests for comment, Reuters reports.
However, DLA Piper last year described the pending Facebook suit as meritless in a written statement provided to the Bits blog of the New York Times (reg. req.), noting that the firm represented Ceglia in the underlying litigation at issue in Facebook’s suit for only a few months. “This is an entirely baseless lawsuit that has been filed as a tactic to intimidate lawyers from bringing litigation against Facebook,” Peter S. Pantaleo, the law firm’s general counsel, said in a statement.
Ceglia cut off his ankle monitor in March and was a no-show earlier this month at a scheduled criminal trial in federal court in Manhattan over documents he allegedly forged to support the 2010 civil case at issue in Facebook’s litigation against the law firms, Reuters reports.
In a summary order (PDF), the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last month affirmed a district judge’s dismissal of Ceglia’s ownership claim against Facebook, calling it meritless. The district court said the purported work-for-hire contract on which Ceglia’s civil litigation against Facebook was based was fabricated.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Facebook sues DLA Piper, other firms, 9 attorneys, says they conspired on fraudulent case”
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