Lawyers copied parts of brief, decided to 'double down on imprudence' by repeating losing arguments, judge alleges
Lawyers representing a food company are facing possible sanctions for filing a motion to dismiss said to largely copy whole sections of a brief filed by another law firm with arguments that did not succeed.
In a June 16 order to show cause, U.S. District Judge Noel Wise of the Northern District of California asked lawyers representing the Neil Jones Food Co. to propose the sanctions that they deem to be appropriate.
The “most glaring sign” of the “sweeping copy and paste” was the brief’s reference to the plaintiff in the prior case, Wise said. And the opposing lawyers who noted the copying were also the opposing lawyers in the prior case.
The food company’s brief included “at least a dozen paragraphs that are substantively identical and near word-for-word duplicates” of the prior brief, according to Wise’s comparison.
She also found it “mystifying why a party would double down on imprudence by reproducing a losing brief.”
The Neil Jones Food Co. brief sought dismissal of a lawsuit seeking damages for noxious odors. The brief and the document that it copied questioned whether pure economic loss can support a negligence claim in California. In the prior case, “the court found for plaintiffs at every juncture with caselaw and analysis that apply with equal force here,” Wise said.
Wise adopted the prior opinion and denied the motion to dismiss. She scheduled a July 28 hearing on the order to show cause.
“Passing off another’s ideas as one’s own is unacceptable in a first-year college class and can lead to failing grade or even expulsion,” she wrote, citing from another case. “Doing so while engaged in the professional practice of law is worse and is both feckless and embarrassing.”
The lawyers representing the Neil Jones Food Co. are Steven C. Clark and David J. Weiland of Coleman & Horowitt in California. On advice of counsel, their firm is not commenting at this time, Weiland told the ABA Journal in an email.
Hat tip to lawyer Robert Freund, who posted the order to show cause on X (formerly Twitter).
Write a letter to the editor, share a story tip or update, or report an error.
