As the Blog of Legal Times and ABA Journal note, the D.C. Circuit has upheld an order that Washington, D.C. art dealer and attorney Robert Fastov pay more than $630,000 to compensate Christie’s, the auction house, for meritless litigation aimed at extracting a settlement on an untenable claim. In a summary judgment order last year, the trial judge cited Fastov’s “well-documented proclivity in this case to engage in obstructionist litigation tactics” and ordered him to pay fees: “a greedy individual, with the advantage of a legal education and a claimed litigation experience, has initiated and maintained this lawsuit, which anyone with a modicum of common sense would have realized was without merit.”
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“a greedy individual, with the advantage of a legal education and a claimed litigation experience, has initiated and maintained this lawsuit, which anyone with a modicum of common sense would have realized was without merit.”
—So if it was merit-less then wasn’t the auction house at fault in agreeing to settle?
“—So if it was merit-less then wasn’t the auction house at fault in agreeing to settle?”
They didn’t settle. He tried to extort a settlement and they called his bluff.