Update (April 21, 2011): “Ugly lawsuit”? OMG. Check it out. Maybe it is a good thing that the judicial privilege is absolute.
Original Post (April 13, 2011): There’s an old quip, “Want to know how to make a small fortune? Start with a big fortune and invest in [FILL IN THE BLANK WITH THE SPECULATIVE BUBBLE DU JOUR].”
The quip comes to mind in connection with the “ugly” lawsuit reported on this week in the Minneapolis Star Tribune. That is, “Want to make a small fortune? Form a bank with $50 million in assets, profits “of about $100,000” last year, and then engage in protracted no-holds-barred bare-knuckle litigation with your business partner, each hiring several of the most preeminent trial lawyers in town. (Whether the case, filed last month, is protracted remains to be seen, of course…)
The Strib reports that Plaintiff David Grzan is represented by George Eck of Dorsey & Whitney, LLP. The defendants are reported as represented by Tim Kelly of Kelly and Hannah, P.A. (although the court’s “register of actions” shows former Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric J. Magnuson as defense counsel.)
The donnybrook is before Hennepin County Judge Cara Lee Neville. This is not the first go-round for Mr. Liefschultz in this kind of brouhaha. (See this decision from 1990.)