Press Your Luck, Pay the Bill: When Refusing to Drop a Doomed Claim Becomes Sanctionable
When does a litigant’s persistence (and perhaps, stubbornness) cross the line into sanctionable conduct? That is the question at the heart of Cortlandt St. Recovery Corp. v. TPG Capital Management, L.P., et al. (Index 651176/2017), a Commercial Division decision by Justice Robert Reed that should give pause to any litigant tempted to keep fighting after the writing is on the wall. In the decision, Justice Reed admonished a plaintiff that continued to litigate claims that had already been rejected in a closely related action arising from the same underlying deal and theory of liability. The decision offers a cautionary lesson on the continuing duty to evaluate the viability of one’s claims as litigation unfolds.