According to court documents obtained by The Blast, the Law Offices of Robert P. Finn have filed a lawsuit against Thomas and his law firm Girardi & Keese. The suit accuses the defendants of fraud, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty.
The suit claims Thomas mislead the law firm after they agreed to work together. Back in 2008 and 2009, the plaintiff says their law office entered into written retainer agreements with 1,524 individuals “who each retained Plaintiff to represent them in connection with claims arising from their or their loved one’s personal injuries sustained from exposure to toxic chemicals emanating from several TXI cement manufacturing facilities in California.”
The Law Office of Robert P. Finn says they referred all the clients to Thomas and his law firm. The two firms agreed to represent the clients together and split the fees 50/50. The plaintiff was also to be reimbursed for all costs incurred by Plaintiff.
According to docs, obtained by The Blast, the TXI cases were “ultimately resolved with a cash settlement, and Defendants received fees, 50% of which should have been held in trust for Plaintiff in addition to the amount owed by Plaintiff for costs. Rather than honoring their obligation under the contract to pay Plaintiff 50% of fees plus costs due Plaintiff, Defendants kept the money for themselves.”
The plaintiff accuses Thomas of executing, “a scheme to keep Plaintiff unaware that they had received fees from the TXI cases and prevented Plaintiff from learning that the money for fees and costs had been received by Defendants.”
The Law Offices of Robert P. Finn accuse Thomas and his firm of coming up with excuse after excuse for their non-payment.
The suit says, “Plaintiff has repeatedly asked Defendants to provide an accounting of the amounts owed under the fee splitting agreement, but Defendants have refused to provide the requested accounting. Defendants unfulfilled promises of payment have caused Plaintiff to believe that Defendants have already taken the attorneys fees from the settlement amount and retained for itself the 50% of the fees and costs owed to Plaintiff.
Further, “Plaintiff is now informed and believes that Defendant may have misallocated and misappropriated funds by unlawfully claiming entitlement to reimbursement for purported costs that are either overstated, misstated, unlawful to claim as costs and/or that were used for the personal expenditures of Defendants, and Defendants have refused to provide any accounting that would allow Plaintiff to determine the amounts owed to Plaintiff.”
The plaintiff is suing Thomas for accounting, compensatory damages, and interest, reports The Blast.
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