Sour apple.A local attorney and a law firm were disqualified dis·qual·i·fy tr.v. dis·qual·i·fied, dis·qual·i·fy·ing, dis·qual·i·fies 1. a. To render unqualified or unfit. b. To declare unqualified or ineligible. 2. from a potential consumer class action case against Apple Computer Inc. because the named plaintiff A named plaintiff is one of the small group of individual plaintiffs in a class action who are identified by name and who stand in for and represent the interests of the larger group of people who comprise the plaintiff class. was represented by his own law firm and another lawyer "closely associated" with him. Lawrence Cagney, an attorney at Westrup Klick & Associates in Long Beach, had filed a lawsuit in January 2004 on behalf of himself and a potential class of consumers who purchased Apple printers with a $99 rebate in 2003. In the suit, he argues that he and other consumers should not have paid the $8 sales tax sales tax, levy on the sale of goods or services, generally calculated as a percentage of the selling price, and sometimes called a purchase tax. It is usually collected in the form of an extra charge by the retailer, who remits the tax to the government. on the rebate. He sought a refund under the state's unfair business practices statute, plus attorneys' fees. Apple sought to disqualify To deprive of eligibility or render unfit; to disable or incapacitate. To be disqualified is to be stripped of legal capacity. A wife would be disqualified as a juror in her husband's trial for murder due to the nature of their relationship. Cagney's law firm and another attorney representing him, Allan Sigel, on grounds that they stood to benefit more from legal fees than they would from any potential recovery and so would have a conflict. Apple cited 10 class action cases from 2003 to 2004 in which a Westrup Klick attorney or a relative of one of the attorneys was one of the named plaintiffs. "We thought that not only these lawyers but other lawyers are abusing the class process by not having a true client," said Apple's attorney, Rich Ruben, a partner at Pillsbury Winthrop LLP LLP - Lower Layer Protocol . "They go next door to their lawyer or their law firm or their wife, and that's the plaintiff. The court agreed with us." On Feb. 17, a 2nd Appellate Relating to appeals; reviews by superior courts of decisions of inferior courts or administrative agencies and other proceedings. panel concluded in a published opinion that an "insurmountable conflict of interest exists" in the case. Sigel said his client would petition the California Supreme Court. "Mr. Cagney has announced he will find other counsel, and this case will continue," he said. Staff reporter Amanda Bronstad can be reached at (323) 549-5225, ext. 225, or at abronstad@labusinessjournal.com. |
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