Earlier this yr, a federal decide in Nevada dismissed a lawsuit that EESystem filed in opposition to The Gentle System and Jason Shurka. The case was thrown out beneath the “first-to-file rule”, which is a authorized precept that stops a celebration from submitting a brand new lawsuit in a unique courtroom when the identical dispute is already being litigated elsewhere.
That dismissal was vital. However what got here subsequent could also be extra consequential.
The Gentle System and Jason Shurka at the moment are pursuing legal professional’s charges in courtroom – asking a federal decide to order EESystem to pay the authorized prices each The Gentle System and Shurka had been pressured to spend defending a lawsuit that, in keeping with EESystem’s personal guide, was by no means meant to succeed.
That final half just isn’t a authorized argument. It’s not spin. It’s an admission, in writing, from inside EESystem’s personal camp.
The Assertion That Modified All the things
After the federal dismissal, a guide retained by EESystem’s authorized group revealed statements on-line describing the Nevada lawsuit in phrases that no litigation opponent may have written higher. In his personal phrases:
“The Nevada federal case was all the time going to get dismissed beneath the first-to-file rule… The result was anticipated. The case was filed strategically… It was by no means the primary combat.”
This was not an outdoor commentator. This was not an nameless supply. This was a guide employed and positioned by EESystem’s personal attorneys, talking publicly in his official capability, describing EESystem’s federal lawsuit as a calculated tactical transfer filed with full information it might be dismissed.
In plain phrases: EESystem opened a federal case in opposition to The Gentle System and Jason Shurka realizing it might fail. Not as a result of they believed they might win. As a result of it purchased them time and compelled each The Gentle System and Jason Shurka to spend cash to defend one thing that EESsytem “anticipated” was going to fail.
Why This Issues: The Authorized Customary for Lawyer’s Charges
Courts don’t award legal professional’s charges in unusual circumstances. To get better authorized prices beneath the Lanham Act, the prevailing celebration should display that the case was “distinctive” – that the opposing celebration’s conduct stands out from the traditional vary of litigation that doesn’t go a celebration’s manner.
Submitting a federal lawsuit with full information will probably be dismissed, utilizing it as a brief tactical instrument to burden an opponent throughout a selected window, after which having a member of your personal group publicly verify that technique after the very fact – that may be a compelling case for exceptionality. The tried erasure of these statements provides one other layer: it displays an consciousness that the admission was damaging, which in flip helps the inference that it was true.
The Gentle System’s attorneys have argued exactly that. The supplemental submitting now earlier than the courtroom presents the unique statements, the edited replacements, and the takedown of the web site as a unified image of litigation conduct that goes properly past a case that merely didn’t succeed on the deserves.
The place Issues Stand
The federal case is closed. The dismissal stands. What stays open is the query of whether or not EESystem should reimburse The Gentle System and Jason Shurka of all attorneys charges that they needed to pay to get so far.
Finally, EESystem pressured The Gentle System and Jason Shurka to spend vital time and assets defending a lawsuit that EESystem’s personal guide has now described as a strategic submitting with an anticipated end result of failure. The Gentle System and Shurka at the moment are asking the courtroom to acknowledge that, and to make EESystem bear the price of a authorized maneuver it designed from the begin to burden its opponent, to not win.
The proof is within the report. The courtroom will determine what to do with it.
