[lit-ideas] Lawyer Creates Infinite Circular Argument
- From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 17 May 2006 17:01:10 -0400
Courtesy of the William Gaddis List:
________
from Overlawyered.com
(http://www.overlawyered.com/archives/002110.html)
Attorney accidentally sues himself
"Alton attorney Emert Wyss thought he could make money in a
Madison County class action lawsuit, but he accidentally
sued himself instead."
Representing a client who'd bought and then refinanced
a house, Wyss advised her that she might be entitled to file
a lawsuit against the company that wrote the original
mortgage over the $60 fee it charged for faxing two payoff
statements, and soon signed her up for a class-action suit
to be handled by himself and several other law firms,
including the prominent Lakin firm. However, it developed
that a company called Centerre Title, owned by Wyss himself,
had been the party that collected the allegedly improper
fees at closing, and when the mortgage-company defendant
learned of this it moved to add both Centerre and Wyss as
third-party defendants, much as Jerry, in the old cartoons,
sometimes succeeds in bringing Tom's tail around in circular
fashion and presenting it for him to bite. The judge granted
the motion, and rather than persist in a suit against
himself Wyss resigned the client's representation. The
Madison County Record's coverage includes
deposition-transcript excerpts that serve as a reminder of
how essentially passive clients often get steered into class
actions in which the lawyers are the real parties in
interest (Steve Corris, "Alton attorney accidentally sues
himself", Madison County Record, Mar. 8
<http://www.madisonrecord.com/news/newsview.asp?c=148217>).
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