On December 07, 2018 a
Letter,Correspondence
was filed
involving a dispute between
Suttonanthony,
and
Beth Israel Hospital,
Daryl Terry,
John Jane Does 1-10,
Thomas Adams,
Zack Lipner,
for Employment (Other Than Cepa Or Lad)
in the District Court of Essex County.
Preview
ESX-L-002951-19 09/08/2020 10:56:56 AM Pg 1 of 2 Trans ID: LCV20201572964
Raquel S. Lord
Tel 973.443.3224
lordr@gtlaw.com
September 8, 2020
VIA E-COURTS
The Honorable Bahir Kamil, J.S.C.
Superior Court of New Jersey Essex County
50 West Market Street
Newark, New Jersey 07102
Re: Anthony Sutton v. Beth Israel Hospital, et al.
Docket No.: ESX-L-2951-19 _
Dear Judge Kamil:
We regret to expend any more of Your Honor’s time with letters such as this one,
but we are compelled to correct yet another willful misrepresentation to the Court by
Plaintiff’s counsel. On August 11, 2020, we wrote to the Court to correct Plaintiff’s
counsel’s misstatement that we had failed to respond to a letter he had written us. In fact,
as stated in our letter to Your Honor, we had responded to counsel the morning following
receipt of his letter. Nonetheless, even after we forwarded to Mr. Hawkins our prior
response and alerted him to his error and asked that he correct it, he inexplicably declined
to do so.
A mere few weeks later we find ourselves here again. On September 3, Mr.
Hawkins sent yet another letter to the Court containing blatant falsehoods. Most notably,
Mr. Hawkins stated that “Defendants Counsel has stated, that they are not going to present
Daryl Terry or work it out in anyway.” This is untrue. As discussed in our August 11 letter,
and other communications, there is a motion pending before Your Honor regarding the
permissible scope of questioning of Mr. Terry. Defendants have never – not once – stated
they will not produce Mr. Terry. However, subsequent to the order that Mr. Terry should
be produced for deposition, counsel expressly stated his intention to use Mr. Terry’s
deposition to pursue completely irrelevant issues in an effort to harass and embarrass him
and waste his time – during a period when the time and attention of the President of a
hospital is plainly at a premium, which Mr. Hawkins also inexplicably refuses to
acknowledge. Given those facts, and counsel’s prior abuses of the discovery process, it was
well within Defendants’ rights to ask the Court’s assistance in setting appropriate
limitations on the questioning of Mr. Terry. Awaiting the Court’s ruling on that motion is
appropriate and necessary and is not akin to a refusal to produce Mr. Terry.
We are extremely concerned about Plaintiff’s counsel’s apparent willingness to
volunteer repeated, deliberate lies to the Court. Not only has Mr. Hawkins continued to
waste this Court’s time and resources, and those of our clients, with his erroneous
Greenberg Traurig, LLP | Attorneys at Law
500 Campus Drive |Suite 400 | Florham Park, New Jersey 07932| T +1.973.360.7900 | F +1.973.301.8410
www.gtlaw.com
ESX-L-002951-19 09/08/2020 10:56:56 AM Pg 2 of 2 Trans ID: LCV20201572964
The Honorable Bahir Kamil, J.S.C.
September 8, 2020
Page 2
_________________
accusations, but his conduct is in clear violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct
requiring candor to the tribunal and simply unbecoming of the legal profession. We
respectfully request that the Court caution Plaintiff’s counsel against any further
misrepresentations and will seek sanctions should he continue this conduct.
We thank you for Your Honor’s attention to this matter.
Respectfully,
Raquel S. Lord
cc: Eldridge Hawkins, Esq. (via e-Courts)
Document Filed Date
September 08, 2020
Case Filing Date
December 07, 2018
Category
Employment (Other Than Cepa Or Lad)
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ESX-L-002951-19 09/08/2020 10:56:56 AM Pg 1 of 2 Trans ID: LCV20201572964 Raquel S. Lord Tel 973.443.3224 lordr@gtlaw.com September 8, 2020 VIA E-COURTS The Honorable Bahir Kamil, J.S.C. Superior Court of New Jersey Essex County 50 West Market Street Newark, New Jersey 07102 Re: Anthony Sutton v. Beth Israel Hospital, et al. Docket No.: ESX-L-2951-19 _ Dear Judge Kamil: We regret to expend any more of Your Honor’s time with letters such as this one, but we are compelled to correct yet another willful misrepresentation to the Court by Plaintiff’s counsel. On August 11, 2020, we wrote to the Court to correct Plaintiff’s counsel’s misstatement that we had failed to respond to a letter he had written us. In fact, as stated in our letter to Your Honor, we had responded to counsel the morning following receipt of his letter. Nonetheless, even after we forwarded to Mr. Hawkins our prior response and alerted him to his error and asked that he correct it, he inexplicably declined to do so. A mere few weeks later we find ourselves here again. On September 3, Mr. Hawkins sent yet another letter to the Court containing blatant falsehoods. Most notably, Mr. Hawkins stated that “Defendants Counsel has stated, that they are not going to present Daryl Terry or work it out in anyway.” This is untrue. As discussed in our August 11 letter, and other communications, there is a motion pending before Your Honor regarding the permissible scope of questioning of Mr. Terry. Defendants have never – not once – stated they will not produce Mr. Terry. However, subsequent to the order that Mr. Terry should be produced for deposition, counsel expressly stated his intention to use Mr. Terry’s deposition to pursue completely irrelevant issues in an effort to harass and embarrass him and waste his time – during a period when the time and attention of the President of a hospital is plainly at a premium, which Mr. Hawkins also inexplicably refuses to acknowledge. Given those facts, and counsel’s prior abuses of the discovery process, it was well within Defendants’ rights to ask the Court’s assistance in setting appropriate limitations on the questioning of Mr. Terry. Awaiting the Court’s ruling on that motion is appropriate and necessary and is not akin to a refusal to produce Mr. Terry. We are extremely concerned about Plaintiff’s counsel’s apparent willingness to volunteer repeated, deliberate lies to the Court. Not only has Mr. Hawkins continued to waste this Court’s time and resources, and those of our clients, with his erroneous Greenberg Traurig, LLP | Attorneys at Law 500 Campus Drive |Suite 400 | Florham Park, New Jersey 07932| T +1.973.360.7900 | F +1.973.301.8410 www.gtlaw.com ESX-L-002951-19 09/08/2020 10:56:56 AM Pg 2 of 2 Trans ID: LCV20201572964 The Honorable Bahir Kamil, J.S.C. September 8, 2020 Page 2 _________________ accusations, but his conduct is in clear violation of the Rules of Professional Conduct requiring candor to the tribunal and simply unbecoming of the legal profession. We respectfully request that the Court caution Plaintiff’s counsel against any further misrepresentations and will seek sanctions should he continue this conduct. We thank you for Your Honor’s attention to this matter. Respectfully, Raquel S. Lord cc: Eldridge Hawkins, Esq. (via e-Courts)