Plaintiff's Attorney Sanctioned For Pursuing Frivolous Litigation

The New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division, upheld an imposition of sanctions against a plaintiff's attorney for pursuing frivolous litigation against his client's former employer. Carolyn Baynes filed a sexual harassment complaint in November 2003 against her supervisor, Darryl Denman. Thereafter, Baynes received obscene and threatening correspondence, warning her to "keep [her] mouth shut" prompting her to file, with the local police, a complaint against Denman. Three years later, in May 2007, the company terminated Denman's employment.

On June 25, 2007, Denman filed a complaint against the company, Baynes, and another employee, Thomas Kiernan. Denman asserted causes of action alleging violations of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and tortious interference with a contractual relationship, claiming that the company terminated his employment because it attributed authorship of the threatening correspondence to him. Without any evidentiary basis, Denman claimed that Kiernan, who also worked for the company at the time, authored and sent the threatening letters to Baynes "for the purpose of falsely implicating [Denman]." Kiernan's attorney sent seven letters to Denman's counsel, demanding dismissal of the complaint as frivolous litigation. Specifically, the communications to counsel noted that Denman's claims were both untimely and lacked evidentiary support. Denman's counsel refused to dismiss the complaint against Kiernan. Thereafter, in November 2007, Kiernan filed a motion to dismiss and sought an award of sanctions and fees. On July 29, 2008, the trial judge dismissed the complaint against Kiernan in its entirety. Furthermore, despite finding that Denman's counsel did not engage in bad faith, the court imposed...