OCALA, Fla. (Legal Newsline) - A class action lawyer deemed a "wrecking ball" by a federal judge faces punishment for bringing the same lawsuit against Big Lots in two separate courts.
The second one failed in Florida, just as the first one did in New York. Now, Big Lots wants New York lawyer Spencer Sheehan to pay the costs it incurred fighting that Florida case, which was thrown out in March.
Sheehan's plaintiffs claimed the Fresh Finds brand coffee claimed to make up to 210 suggested strength 6 oz. servings but actually didn't. But judges found those plaintiffs didn't pay enough attention to other serving instructions on the package.
For instance, making one serving at a time takes proportionally more coffee grounds than making large servings.
Big Lots filed a motion May 15 in Ocala federal court requesting Sheehan pay for its costs defending "one of many repeat, baseless actions" filed by Sheehan, who has filed hundreds of consumer deception class actions and has repeatedly angered defendants and judges.
Calling itself the "prevailing party" entitled to fees, Big Lots then asks whether plaintiff Peggy Durant or Sheehan should be on the hook for them.
"A fee award - against Mr. Sheehan - not only recompenses Big Lots for spending substantial resources to defend a frivolous action; it also represents the only way to deter continued bad behavior in federal courts," Big Lots' lawyers wrote.
"(I)n flagrant disregard of the many federal court orders advising him to cease filing frivolous claims, he re-filed a previously rejected, frivolous mislabeling theory here."
It adds that Sheehan "appears to have fabricated" an independent laboratory analysis of Big Lots' coffee. He cited the report in the complaint but never produced it during the pendency of the case.
Jacob Harper of Davis Wright Tremaine represents Big Lots, whose March victory was part of a series of losses for Sheehan.
He had just lost a case over Mrs. Smith's pie crust said to be made with real butter and another over flavored Alka-Seltzer Plus cold and flu products. He had also recently lost a case claiming lime-flavored Perrier drinkers were tricked by green bottles.
One judge has called him a "wrecking ball" and another in New York is currently considering what punishment he will receive after being held in contempt.
Sheehan first gained notoriety as the "vanilla vigilante," filing a host of lawsuits that claimed vanilla flavoring in products did not contain traditional vanilla.
Sheehan has sued because the strawberry flavoring in Pop-Tarts comes from pears and apples and is dyed red. He complained Bagel Bites have cheese that is a blend made with skim milk and feature tomato sauce that contains ingredients consumers wouldn't expect (the judge hearing that case called his claims "unreasonable and unactionable").
Last year, he lost a lawsuit that said the fudge in fudge-covered Oreos should adhere to traditional definitions of "fudge" by containing more milk fat and not palm oil and nonfat milk.
Ashley Furniture has sued him in Florida state court for targeting it with a lawsuit it had nothing to do with. It involved a third-party company offering warranties on furniture.