ROCKFORD, Ill. (Legal Newsline) - The maker of Trident gum, sued over a mint leaf on its package, wanted an Illinois federal court to penalize the lawyer who has besieged the food industry with lawsuits but a judge there has ruled that request premature.
Mondelez Global on Feb. 14 filed a motion for sanctions against attorney Spencer Sheehan, a New York-based lawyer known for his novel concepts of consumer deception. He's filed hundreds of proposed class actions around the country, with some of them angering defendants and perplexing judges.
However, there are successes - like a settlement over vitamin C claims on Vizzy hard seltzers that could net Sheehan and other lawyers $2.5 million.
The gist of Sheehan's strategy is to find a product that features a certain ingredient on the front label but doesn't actually include that ingredient, then file suit on behalf of a customer who claims he or she expected that ingredient.
Recent examples include bagged cheese curl snacks called Jalapeno Poppers that do not include jalapenos and a rejected case over Lorna Doone cookies that were allegedly marketed as Scottish but contained no butter - like a traditional Scottish shortbread cookie would.
Mondelez Global defeated that case at the dismissal stage. It's hoping to do the same in the Northern District of Illinois in the case that alleges gum-chewers expected real mint in their Trident, despite what the ingredients list said.
It filed its motion to dismiss the same day as the motion for sanctions, alleging Sheehan's plaintiff has no standing because she suffered no harm. Noting many other dismissals, Mondelez now says Sheehan should be punished for continuing to pursue the Trident case.
"Plaintiff's counsel tends to file the same copy-and-paste complaint in all his many cases, regardless of how frequently his claims have been dismissed," the motion for sanctions says. "Courts have repeatedly admonished him for doing so and have threatened sanctions.
"In cases like this one, sanctions are appropriate to deter serial filers."
The motion cites an Illinois Southern District ruling that called him a "serial filer of frivolous litigation in various federal courts across the country." It seeks the costs Mondelez incurred fighting the Trident case.
But Judge Iain Johnston on Feb. 1 said that motion was premature, as he hasn't even ruled on the motion to dismiss. Once he does, Johnston says Mondelez can refile it.