1st Mariner wins more than $300K in legal fees in defamation suit

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A federal judge last week awarded 1st Mariner Bank more than $300,000 in legal fees and costs for a defamation lawsuit the company won late last year against an out-of-state lawyer and his firm.

Senior U.S. District Judge Marvin J. Garbis granted 1st Mariner’s request for judgment by default in November 2014 along with a request for sanctions against Robert Geoffrey Broderick Jr. and his Connecticut-based firm, The Resolution Law Group, for ignoring six court orders to respond to discovery requests.

“They had no basis for doing what they were doing,” said James B. Astrachan, a lawyer for 1st Mariner. Astrachan is chair of The Daily Record’s Editorial Advisory Board.

Garbis awarded 1st Mariner $318,597.50 in legal fees and other costs of $20,387.34 on Sept. 8, according to electronic court files, finding the conduct of the defendants was “exceptional” according to federal law.

Garbis also enjoined Broderick from making false statements about 1st Mariner. Garbis did not object to the injunctive relief.

“The Court does not accept the argument that imposition of the fee award would have a ‘chilling’ effect on members of the Bar who seek to present cases in a professional manner,” Garbis wrote. “Broderick did not behave as such a member of the bar.”

Jail threatened

1st Mariner was also awarded legal fees during litigation, Astrachan said, and Broderick and Resolution were held in contempt and threatened with jail for failing to pay as ordered. The sanction was eventually paid, according to Astrachan.

1st Mariner’s lawsuit included counts for defamation, false advertising and unfair competition.

1st Mariner filed suit in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore in 2012, alleging that Resolution was trying to drum up mortgage-refinancing clients by falsely claiming that 1st Mariner was facing regulatory action and litigation for fraudulent lending practices. The letter carried the heading “Litigation Notification” and appeared to be a mass tort notice, telling customers they need to call a toll-free number to “opt-in” as a potential national litigant.

The “slick take-in operation” even fooled relatively sophisticated consumers, according to Astrachan, of Astrachan Gunst Thomas P.C. in Baltimore.

The number in the letter connected callers to a call center where non-lawyers collected information and took payment, but no legal actions were undertaken by The Resolution Law Group, Astrachan said. The phone number was the same as one used in similar advertisements in another state before the operation was shut down.

“They were scaring the hell out of people who couldn’t pay their mortgages,” he said.

Restraining order

A temporary restraining order was issued by U.S. District Judge James K. Bredar in May 2012 then later modified to require Resolution to provide copies of any advertising material to 1st Mariner prior to dissemination.

Magistrate Judge Susan K. Gauvey recommended Broderick and Resolution be found in default in April for destroying evidence, acting in bad faith and otherwise preventing 1st Mariner from getting evidence needed for its claims.

“It was really, really frustrating,” Astrachan said of the litigation, calling it a “long, tortuous process.”

Connecticut-based Resolution was investigated by attorneys general in Florida and Connecticut during the course of the 1st Mariner litigation, according to Astrachan. A settlement was reached late last year.

The case is 1st Mariner Bank v. The Resolution Law Group, P.C. et al., 1:12-cv-01133-MJG.