{"id":221,"date":"2021-04-20T22:40:31","date_gmt":"2021-04-21T02:40:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/miskathecat.com\/?p=221"},"modified":"2022-04-25T16:33:05","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T20:33:05","slug":"danieli-seeks-court-sanctions-against-government-defendants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/danieli-seeks-court-sanctions-against-government-defendants\/","title":{"rendered":"Danieli Seeks Court Sanctions Against Government  Defendants"},"content":{"rendered":"<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_819454-48, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_819454-48[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_819454-48\"]{font-size:24px;font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_819454-48 mark, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_819454-48[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_819454-48\"] mark{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}<\/style>\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading_819454-48 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_819454-48\"><strong>Attorneys for Danieli Claim that the King County Defendant\u2019s Notice of Removal was Legally Baseless, and that the Federal Court should impose Court Sanctions.<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p><em>TACOMA, WASHINGTON<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost two months after initially taking Miska, the brown tabby cat&#8217;s case to federal court, the King County Defendants have reversed course and now filed a Motion to Remand, in an attempt to return the case back to State Court.&nbsp; Plaintiff Anna Danieli, who is the owner of Miska, who is at at the center of this litigation, is asking the federal court to impose sanctions, in addition to paying her attorney\u2019s fees and costs. \u201cThis case should have never been removed to federal court in the first place,\u201d says Jon Zimmerman, one of the attorneys representing the Danieli. &nbsp;Danieli\u2019s attorneys have filed a Response to the King County Defendants\u2019 Motion for Remand as well as a separate Motion for Sanctions.&nbsp; Both court filings allege that the King County Defendants\u2019 original Notice of Removal to federal court was lacking in any valid legal basis for removal to federal court, while also containing material misrepresentations within the court filings. \u201cAs officers of the court, attorneys have obligations around the court documents they file,\u201d stated Zimmerman. \u201cFiling court documents without proper legal authority and full of misrepresentations is sanctionable conduct.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_a3ea87-3b, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_a3ea87-3b[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_a3ea87-3b\"]{font-size:24px;font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_a3ea87-3b mark, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_a3ea87-3b[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_a3ea87-3b\"] mark{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}<\/style>\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading_a3ea87-3b wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_a3ea87-3b\">The Case, Before King County Removed It to Federal Court<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Before King County filed its Notice of Removal on March 5th, 2021, the case had been in Pierce County Superior Court since April 2019. Since this time, Danieli has dealt with a number of procedural motions to remove certain individual defendants, as well as a significant court victory in October 2020, when she successfully obtained a Declaratory Judgment and Injunction against the City of Bellevue.  This decision found relevant portions of the Bellevue City Code invalid, and forbade the King County Hearing Examiner from hearing any further appeals of animal enforcement cases from Bellevue until the City of Bellevue corrected and updated its local law. &nbsp;In response to the Court\u2019s Order, the City of Bellevue amended the Bellevue City Code in December 2020.&nbsp; Since the time of this court win, the case has continued with its remaining tort claims, as well as the prospect of civil rights claims against the various Government Defendants resulting from evidence uncovered during litigation.&nbsp; \u201cThis has been a very long process, and a very complicated case\u201d says Zimmerman, who has been prosecuting this case alongside attorney Jeffrey Possinger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The recent court filings by Danieli\u2019s attorneys describe the detailed timeline of this legally complicated case.&nbsp; \u201cThe facts of this case are complicated, but the story is pretty simple\u201d says Possinger. \u201cThis is a case involving a private citizen taking on the government \u2013 in this case two governments and their teams of attorneys,  and it illustrates just how hard it is to hold the government responsible for its actions.\u201d &nbsp;Just prior to King County\u2019s filing of its Notice of Removal, the Superior Court had required the attorneys for Danieli to address some procedural matters before it would move forward with approving Danieli\u2019s request to amend her complaint to include claims for civil rights violations. Then, without notice to Danieli\u2019s attorneys or to the Superior Court, King County filed its Notice of Removal, only hours after one such hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhether or not Danieli\u2019s proposed civil rights claims would eventually belong in federal court is an arguable question, but there is no question that [King] County\u2019s taking this case to federal court at this time was procedurally premature\u201d says Possinger.&nbsp; The timing of King County\u2019s actions \u201cessentially jammed a legal and jurisdictional crowbar between the gears of two separate but interrelated court systems\u201d says Danieli\u2019s Motion for Sanctions, actions that have been an unnecessary and costly derailing of Danieli\u2019s case in state court.&nbsp; It\u2019s this kind of expensive and legally baseless game-playing that Danieli\u2019s Motion for Sanctions seeks to address.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_48901b-92, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_48901b-92[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_48901b-92\"]{font-size:24px;font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_48901b-92 mark, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_48901b-92[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_48901b-92\"] mark{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}<\/style>\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading_48901b-92 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_48901b-92\">Sanctionable Conduct Part of a Pattern<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Danieli\u2019s attorneys say that this kind of conduct by King County and its attorneys is part of a pattern.  Danieli\u2019s attorneys point out in the Motion for Sanctions that, in earlier motions ( that ultimately resulted in the City of Bellevue being required to change its law), the Government Defendants had attempted to prevent Danieli from having her day in court at all by \u201cvoiding\u201d the underlying civil infractions that had been issued against her before the trial court could hold a hearing on her legal claims. &nbsp;At the time, all of the Government Defendants had relied on this strategy, as a way to prevent Danieli from having her claims rightfully heard by the court.  Not only had the Government Defendants failed to disclose to Danieli\u2019s attorneys for months that they had voided the underlying infractions against their client Danieli (only revealing this information in their Motions to Dismiss), but as Danieli\u2019s attorneys pointed out to the trial court in their responses to the various government motions, the actions taken by King County employees to effectuate this strategy were both illegal and for those taking the actions, official misconduct, according to the relevant law governing civil infractions. Although the trial court did not sanction the Government Defendants at that time, the trial court ignored the Government Defendants\u2019 stratagem, and granted Danieli\u2019s Motion for Partial Summary Judgment. As is detailed in her Motion for Sanctions, even though she ultimately prevailed and the Government Defendants&#8217; ill-conceived strategy failed, Danieli\u2019s fight against these tactics has come at a high cost to her as a private citizen taking on two of the largest governments in Washington State.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_a4d1b6-52, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_a4d1b6-52[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_a4d1b6-52\"]{font-size:24px;font-style:normal;}.wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_a4d1b6-52 mark, .wp-block-kadence-advancedheading.kt-adv-heading_a4d1b6-52[data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_a4d1b6-52\"] mark{font-style:normal;color:#f76a0c;padding-top:0px;padding-right:0px;padding-bottom:0px;padding-left:0px;}<\/style>\n<h2 class=\"kt-adv-heading_a4d1b6-52 wp-block-kadence-advancedheading\" data-kb-block=\"kb-adv-heading_a4d1b6-52\">Holding the Government Accountable <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Danieli\u2019s attorneys say this motion is required to hold the government and its attorneys accountable. \u201cThis lawsuit is about holding the government accountable for its actions, and this particular motion is about holding the government and its attorneys accountable for their conduct within this case,&#8221; says attorney Jeffrey Possinger.&nbsp; He and co-counsel Jon Zimmerman are hopeful that sanctions will prevent, or at least minimize, additional frivolous legal tactics going forward as the case proceeds to trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A hearing has been set for Friday, April 30th, 2021 on Danieli\u2019s Motion for Sanctions, and a separate motion requesting consolidation of this motion with the County\u2019s Motion for Remand has not yet been decided.&nbsp; Chief Judge Ricardo S. Martinez will decide the issues that have been presented by the attorneys for Danieli and the various King County Defendants.<\/p>\n\n\n<style>.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-_6855c1-89 .kt-block-spacer{height:60px;}.wp-block-kadence-spacer.kt-block-spacer-_6855c1-89 .kt-divider{border-top-width:1px;height:1px;border-top-color:#eee;width:80%;border-top-style:solid;}<\/style>\n<div class=\"wp-block-kadence-spacer aligncenter kt-block-spacer-_6855c1-89\"><div class=\"kt-block-spacer kt-block-spacer-halign-center\"><hr class=\"kt-divider\"\/><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/2021-04-12-PTF-Response-to-Motion-to-Remand.pdf\">Response to Motion to Remand<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/2021-04-12MTN-for-Sanctions.pdf\">Motion for Sanctions (FRCP 11)<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/2021-04-12-Declaration-in-support-of-Mtn-for-Sanctions.pdf\">Declaration in Support of Motion for Sanctions (FRCP 11)<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n<p><em>We invite you to stay up-to-date with future case developments by following our firm&#8217;s related social media channels (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/possinger_law_group\/\">@possinger_law_group on Instagram<\/a>, and <a href=\"http:\/\/possingerlaw.com\">possingerlaw.com<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Attorneys for Danieli Claim that the King County Defendant\u2019s Notice of Removal was Legally Baseless, and that the Federal Court should impose Court Sanctions. TACOMA, WASHINGTON Almost two months after initially taking Miska, the brown tabby cat&#8217;s case to federal court, the King County Defendants have reversed course and now filed a Motion to Remand,<a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/danieli-seeks-court-sanctions-against-government-defendants\/\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8,10,5,6,4,9,14],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-case-updates","tag-city-of-bellevue","tag-danieli","tag-federal-court","tag-king-county","tag-litigation","tag-miska","tag-sanctions"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491,"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/491"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.possingerlaw.com\/miska\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}