NEW YORK - Dauphin County, Pa., has sued for reimbursement of fees and court costs from attorney Mark Schwartz, who is appealing the rejection of the Harrisburg City Council’s bankruptcy filing.
Mayor Linda Thompson and Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett also filed motions supporting Dauphin’s action. Thompson, Corbett, the county and major creditors opposed the City Council’s bankruptcy filing last October.
“This [latest] appeal is frivolous,” attorneys from McNees Wallace & Nurick LLC and Mette, Evans & Woodside said in Wednesday’s filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, where Schwartz has filed a second appeal of the dismissal.
The attorneys asked the court to award “just damages and single or double costs.”
Schwartz called the litigation personal.
“Lawyers are supposed to be zealous in terms of representation of their clients. From my experience in my Harrisburg representation from the inception, I’ve experienced personal animus against me because I chose to take on the representation of the City Council and to issue the report that I did concerning the incinerator bond issues. I’m sorry if I have ruined some folks’ party, but I’m not going so fast,” he said.
Harrisburg owes about $310 million for an incinerator retrofit project, and has skipped about $65 million worth of related bond payments. Last month, it missed two general payments totaling $5.3 million. It is under receivership, though the position of receiver is currently vacant.
Charles Zwilly of Mette Evans could not quantify the county’s legal costs. Messages seeking comment were left with Dauphin officials.
“I don’t know who it’s personal between,” Zwilly said in an interview. “We felt there were grounds for the county reclaiming its costs.”
Bankruptcy Judge Mary France and District Judge Sylvia Rambo invalidated the filing and an appeal late last fall, with lateness of a filing cited in the rejection of the appeal. Rambo called Schwartz’s further appeal to district court “potentially frivolous,” which the county’s lawyers cited in last week’s filing.
A motion on Thursday by Tucker Arensberg PC filed on behalf of Thompson called Schwartz’s argument that he needed more time “disingenuous.”
Schwartz, a Bryn Mawr, Pa., solo practitioner and former bond and investment banker, has represented the City Council since October, and has appealed the latest rejection to the Third Circuit.
“I find it ironic that Dauphin County wants costs and damages from me when my invoices have not been paid,” said Schwartz, who said Thompson’s people at City Hall have been holding up payments to him.
Schwartz had agreed last fall to a $40,000 payment from the City Council, which later whittled it to $20,000, given the state capital city’s financial plight.
“I wonder if the mayor’s and Dauphin County’s lawyers have also not been paid. I somehow doubt it,” he said.
