Morris v. DiPaolo

930 A.2d 500, 2007 Pa. Super. 186, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1667
Superior Court of Pennsylvania·Decided June 18, 2007·Published·Cited by 14 cases

Opinion

OPINION BY

PANELLA, J.:

¶ 1 Appellant, Brian M. Puricelli, Esquire, appeals from the order entered on October 24, 2005, by the Honorable John Milton Younge, Court of Common Pleas of [501] Philadelphia County. After careful review, we vacate and remand.

¶ 2 The genesis of this tortuous and contentious case lies in the discharge of Bensalem Township police officer Gregory DiPaolo. Following his discharge, officer DiPaolo filed a grievance that proceeded to arbitration under the terms of the governing collective bargaining agreement. The arbitrator ruled in DiPaolo’s favor and ordered that DiPaolo be reinstated to his prior position with back pay.

¶ 3 Bensalem Township, represented by Appellee Neil A. Morris, Esquire, and his eponymous law firm, appealed the arbitration award to the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas. Bensalem Township refused to reinstate DiPaolo as a police officer or pay him back wages pending the appeal. DiPaolo then retained Attorney Puricelli to explore his legal remedies in light of Bensalem Township’s actions. Upon reviewing DiPaolo’s case, Attorney Puricelli concluded that the arbitration appeal had not been filed in a timely manner and that further, no valid legal grounds existed for the Township’s appeal.

¶ 4 During his investigation, Attorney Puricelli allegedly learned of efforts by Attorney Morris to intimidate certain witnesses into either modifying their testimony at the hearing or not testifying at all, or both. Based upon all these circumstances, Attorney Puricelli concluded that sufficient grounds existed to assert a federal civil rights claim against Bensalem Township, several Bensalem Township officials, and, most importantly for the instant appeal, Attorney Morris and his law firm.

¶ 5 Attorney Puricelli filed a federal civil rights lawsuit in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging that DiPaolo’s constitutional rights had been violated by Bensalem Township’s actions in failing to reinstate him and failing to pay his back wages pursuant to the arbitrator’s decision. Soon after this filing, Bensalem Township agreed to reinstate DiPaolo and pay him back wages pursuant to the arbitrator’s award. Subsequently, on March 8, 2000, the defendants in DiPaolo’s federal civil suit filed a Rule 11 motion in the Eastern District, seeking sanctions against DiPaolo and Puricelli for filing a frivolous claim.1

¶ 6 A hearing on the Rule 11 motion was held on April 27, 2000. After extensive argument and discussion, the Honorable William H. Yohn entered an order on May 4, 2000, denying the motion. Judge Yohn’s order further set forth the claims he would allow DiPaolo to pursue, including at least one claim against Attorney Morris and his law firm. Thereafter, on May 24, 2000, Attorney Puricelli filed an amended complaint.

II7 On June 16 and 26, 2000, Morris filed supplemental Rule 11 motions, one seeking sanctions, the other seeking dismissal, in response to the amended complaint. After Attorney Puricelli failed to respond to the supplemental motion, Judge Yohn granted the motion on July 11, 2000; however, he deferred his decision on Morris’s motion to dismiss. Subsequently, on December 5, 2000, DiPaolo moved to voluntarily dismiss his claims against Morris. Judge Yohn granted DiPaolo’s motion on January 2, 2001, and, as a result, never addressed the merits of DiPaolo’s complaint against Morris.

¶ 8 Following further argument by the parties, Judge Yohn issued an order and memorandum dated June 27, 2008 addressing the sanctions to be imposed on Attorney Puricelli and DiPaolo pursuant to [502] his July 11, 2000 order. In this memorandum and order, Judge Yohn concluded that the District Court retained jurisdiction to sanction DiPaolo and Attorney Pur-icelli despite the voluntary dismissal of the case. Furthermore, Judge Yohn concluded that Attorney Morris was not entitled to attorney’s fees to the extent that he represented himself. See DiPaolo v. Moran, 277 F.Supp.2d 528 (E.D.Pa.2003). Judge Yohn deferred calculating sanctions until a hearing on the issue had been held.

¶ 9 In light of the litigious mood of the parties, it is no surprise that the case ended up in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. In the words of the Honorable Thomas L. Ambro, writing for the Court of Appeals:

During the hearing the parties informed the District Court that Morris had begun litigation against Puricelli in the Court of Common Pleas of Philadelphia County, in which Morris alleged that the suit before the District Court was “baseless and without merit” and that Puricel-li’s conduct was an abuse of process.2 After noting that Morris was seeking damages in the case pending in state court, and, indeed, had established liability but was awaiting an assessment of damages, the District Court declined to award a monetary sanction. Instead, it reprimanded Puricelli and ordered him to attend and complete twelve hours of continuing legal education (in addition to the Pennsylvania bar’s requirements) related to civil rights claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and constitutional tort litigation. Puricelli appealed this order, and Morris cross-appealed because the sanction ordered did not include money.

DiPaolo v. Moran, 407 F.3d 140, 143-144 (3d Cir.2005).

¶ 10 As noted supra, Attorney Morris initiated this action against DiPaolo, Puri-celli and Puricelli’s law firm. On May 25, 2004, the Honorable Thomas Watkins, now retired, granted Morris’s motion for summary judgment on the issue of liability, preserving the issue of damages for trial. Attorney Puricelli, acting pro se, filed an appeal from Judge Watkins’s order granting summary judgment on liability, as well as a Ring’s Bench petition in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. The King’s Bench petition was denied by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, while this Court quashed Attorney Puricelli’s direct appeal as interlocutory. We further granted Attorney Morris’s request for sanctions related to Puricelli’s actions in filing an interlocutory appeal.

¶ 11 A trial on damages was held in June 2005 before Judge Younge. At the conclusion of the trial, the jury awarded Attorney Morris a total of $47,000.00 in damages. The trial court assessed further damages against Attorney Puricelli totaling $12,079.22 pursuant to this Court’s order as well as pursuant to an outstanding contempt petition. Attorney Puricelli filed post-trial motions, which the trial court failed to rule upon within 120 days. As a result, judgment was entered as a matter of law upon Attorney Puricelli’s praecipe, and this timely appeal followed.

¶ 12 On appeal, Attorney Puricelli raises the following issues for our review:

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Morris v. DiPaolo, 930 A.2d 500, 2007 Pa. Super. 186, 2007 Pa. Super. LEXIS 1667 (Pa. Ct. App. 2007).

930 A.2d 500 (Morris v. DiPaolo) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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