IF you want to sound “smart”, quote Shakespeare. “The first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers”. That sentence from Henry might be the most quoted line from any Shakespearean play. An accurate sentiment to be sure but not a terribly practical thing to wish for. The line is uttered by a thick-headed murderous thug named “Dick”. Dick and a compatriot named Cade are plotting a coup against King Henry. Dick proposes to murder all the lawyers. Why? They want to liquidate the intellectuals. Being intellectual isn’t necessarily what is wrong with lawyers. Often it is the opposite. In the play, lawyers have invented unjust and often nonsensical laws that other lawyers use to hurt the innocent including a death sentence for one of the plays protagonists.
I’m a lawyer. I practiced for over 30 years. I can attest that I often wanted lawyers to disappear into sinkholes. During my career many lawyers were just dumb. They were never a threat, just annoyances. Many were immoral. Often they were threats because they did not care about ethics. And then there are the cockroaches. Those lawyers are usually pretty bright – but they exploit nonsense laws or poorly drafted statutes to make a mountain of money and in the process, hurt or destroy businesses. Cockroaches find plaintiff clients to be their cockroach toadies, acting as the “aggrieved” parties. Ambulance chasers are saints compared to cockroach lawyers. This is such a story.
About 20 years ago, wheelchair bound Thomas Mundy rolled to Los Angeles. He quickly got to work. His work was suing business for ADA violations. Mundy would find a business and look for a technical violation of the Disabled Persons Act (DPA). When a technical violation was found, his lawyer, named Morse Mehrban, would sue. In a 2 year span Mundy and Mehrban filed hundreds of lawsuits. A parking lot with disabled stalls narrower than 8 feet? Sue. A hook on a door an inch too “high”? Sue. A countertop is half an inch too high? Sue.
The owner of Varsity Burgers in Anaheim said of Mundy:
“He might as well have had a gun and asked me for $1,000 when he came in”. What was Varsity Burgers’ violation? A countertop was half-inch too high. A half inch.
Mundy made a living being a professional litigant. A professional cockroach.
Usually, businesses paid the legal extortion because was cheaper to settle. Businesses (and their insurers) chalked it up to the cost of doing business. Mundy and his lawyer would move on to the next business to sue. Mehrban practiced this type of cockroach law because it paid well. Usually. Sometimes it didn’t pay at all.
In 2009 Mundy rolled his wheelchair into a carwash bathroom looking for violations. Mundy rolled into the carwash bathroom. The mirrors were “too high” for him to view his reflection. He sued. However, the carwash didn’t roll over. The case went to trial. At trial, the trial judge allowed evidence that Mundy is a professional plaintiff. Before deliberating, jury knew Mundy made a living suing businesses. Mundy lost at trial. The appeals court affirmed, citing some legal arguments, but the court also noted that Mundy was not “damaged”.
In a short span, Mehrban and Mundy filed over 500 suits. Although Mundy was making a good living being a professional pain in the ass, he filed “indigent” paperwork claiming he was too poor to pay his own filing fees. He avoided several thousand in fees by claiming he was indigent even while his income was six figures.
In one case Mundy sued a restaurant called MAO’s Kitchen. MAO cross complained. Its claim was that Mundy had defrauded the court by claiming he was indigent and unable to pay the filing fee. Mundy was deposed and claimed he just “checked the box” for indigent status at the direction of his attorney Mehrban.
The cockroach lawyer had other clients. One was an illegal alien and a felon named Alfredo Garcia. In one case, Gracia rolled into a restaurant and claimed he was:
“[U]nable to use the restroom paper towel and toilet seat cover dispensers because they were mounted too far above the floor, and unable to use the toilet because it failed to provide him two grab (support) bars.” Garcia sought “$1,000 for each violation of Civil Code sections 54 and 54.1, [and] attorney fees and costs․” Following a court trial, the trial court entered judgment in favor of JSJ.”
Garcia and Mehrban weren’t satisfied with losing – they sued JSJ, again; this time for a parking space violation. The trial court sustained a demurrer noting that Garcia had no problem patronizing (and suing) the restaurant. JSJ sued Mehrban for malicious prosecution. Wrong move. What JSJ should have done is file a CCP 128.7 for sanctions.
A hotel in Monrovia called Aztec Hotel was sued by Mehrban/Mundy. But the owner, Kathie Reece-McNeil, didn’t settle. She won at trial. Her lawyer filed a CCP 128.7 sanctions motion and prevailed. The trial court sanctioned Mehrban in the amount of $29,000.
Some pundits call this a “cottage industry”. I have a different name for it:
“This is more profitable than narcotics, literally,” said attorney David Warren Peters. Peters was an attorney working with Lawyers Against Lawsuit Abuse.
“You can make $12,000 a day just eating three meals out,” said Peters.
That’s because California law allowed a plaintiff to sue for $4,000 per violation.
Mundy filed 10 lawsuits in just one month. But Mundy seems to have disappeared. I did a name search in the LA Superior Court system and in the last 10 years “Thomas Mundy has only filed twice for Temporary Restraining Orders.
His disappearance may have been due to a Supreme Court case that allowed for defendants to collect statutory attorney fees, and change in the law that lowered the amount from $4,000 to $1,000.
Suddenly, a lot of the cockroaches disappeared.
Mehrban once declared his version of justice (aka cockroach law) is a public service. No doubt, attorneys like Mehrban are why people quote Shakespear, and long for the end of cockroach lawyers altogether.