Practice Pointer: Do Not Hit Send
A suspension of one year and until further court order has been imposed by the New York Appellate Division for the First Judicial Department
The first charge related to a decision and order entered February 11, 2010, in which the Hon. Shirley Kornreich sanctioned respondent $28,600 in attorneys’ fees for frivolous litigation conduct as a pro se plaintiff in an action entitled Steinberg v Queens Import Motors, et al. (Supreme Court, New York County), and directed him to pay an additional $5,000 to the Lawyers’ Fund for Client Protection for what the court characterized as “egregious” conduct. When an automobile at issue in that underlying litigation was sold at a sheriff’s auction to satisfy the judgment for legal fees, respondent unsuccessfully challenged the sale as a fraudulent conveyance.
Unrelated charges
The two remaining charges pertained to a four-page ex parte email respondent sent to the Hon. Gerald Lebovits in an action entitled Washington v Manhattan Automobile Repair, et al. (New York City Civil Court, New York County). Respondent represented the defendants in that action pro bono, and wrote the email in response to Justice Lebovits’s order and decision imposing contempt fines against respondent’s client for failing to abide by a court order directing the defendant to return the plaintiff’s vehicle to him. In the four-page long email (which he also mailed to Justice Lebovits’s chambers), respondent stated, inter alia,
“[y]ou were irritated at the hearing because you thought you could short-circuit most argument in this case without examination of any of the underlying facts by simply ordering a car returned to its apparent owner. I had frustrated that intention by saying that the Plaintiff had been lying to the court and abusing process for so long (in an attempt to rehear the trial of this case) that the only person who knew the answer to your question of where it was, is lying in bed dying of cancer. With the greatest of respect, while you were entitled to be irritated at not having an answer to your question and not being able to dispose of the case easily, you had no jurisdiction to dispose of the case in a way contrary to the interests of one litigant where you had prevented the litigant from putting forth his case through counsel. Especially after explicitly threatening the party’s counsel with prison in an order summarily punishing a contempt’ you said was committed in the presence of the court’. Where the only ill was an inability to answer a question you had concerning how the Court could ensure that the Plaintiff’s original swindle succeeded.
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“That you did not find this inexcusable is an egregious failure for a duly appointed New York judge, – though your failure to do this may arise as a result of intentionally blinding yourself to the mass of evidence in this case so that you could find a (serial litigator of abuse of process actions) Plaintiff a credible witness.
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“Indeed, my affidavit in this very motion, which clearly you had not thought to read demonstrated that the Plaintiff remains in denial about his fraud being uncovered.
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“Even in circumstances where you were intentionally blinding yourself to the facts because of your irritation at my client having terminal cancer, it can never be appropriate to prevent counsel putting forth his client’s case in the best manner possible, so that those facts do not come to your attention. Especially where you cannot easily write a judgment on the contempt being alleged because the Plaintiff has brought a contempt motion asking for damages for indecipherable reasons’ and did not know whether he was claiming damages (in response to your direct question) until it suited him to do so and still does not seem to know what his damages are or where the contempt is.
“I would respectfully suggest that these are not circumstances where based on that, you should write a judgment pretending that I have made allegations solely to discredit me! Such as the allegation that I had said that the Appellate Term was mistaken in not granting a stay.
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“I would respectfully suggest that the only proper course should be for you to recuse yourself voluntarily and over the handling of the contempt hearing to another judge. I say that a hearing which has not allowed proper input by both parties because the judge has overstepped the mark’ and threatened one side’s counsel out of acting is not a properly conducted hearing; and any judge who has knowingly presided over such an improper hearing should consider no alternative course but to withdraw his judgment immediately.”
Respondent did not file an answer specifically addressing the charges. Rather, he filed a motion to, among other things, transfer the matter to the Third Department. This Court denied the motion, granted the Committee’s petition to the extent of deeming the charges admitted on default, and appointed a referee to conduct a hearing as to sanction only.
The AGC had sought a two-year suspension.
He must satisfy the sanctions order to secure reinstatement. (Mike Frisch)