Peninsula sues former attorneys
Feb. 2—MAPLETON — Peninsula Township is suing two former attorneys and their current and former firms over claims of legal malpractice when defending against Wineries of the Old Mission Peninsula and 11 wineries' ongoing lawsuit.
The township through an outside attorney filed suit Thursday claiming that Gregory Meihn and Matthew Wise fell short of their duties of practice or care while representing Peninsula before U.S. District Court Judge Paul Maloney, who is presiding over the association's and wineries' lawsuit challenging township zoning rules.
Peninsula Township accuses the attorneys and firms of a string of lapses related to missing a September 2021 deadline to an expert witnesses or their reports to rebut damages claims from the wineries and association. According to a complaint filed Thursday in 13th Circuit Court, an expert witness for the plaintiffs in that case estimated $203 million in damages at one point — later dropping that to $135 million in a supplemental report.
By missing those deadlines, the attorneys left the township unable to bring in its own expert to challenge that damages estimate, according to the malpractice complaint. That could have included a report claiming numerous errors in the wineries' and association's report that resulted in unrealistically high numbers.
"As a result of Defendants' failure to timely list one or more experts and timely produce expert reports, the Township is now forced to bring a proverbial knife to a gunfight in the ongoing litigation, creating a critical disadvantage for it in responding to the Wineries' grossly-inflated damages claims, and exposing the Township to far greater liability than it ever would have if Defendants had complied with the standard of care," the complaint reads.
That in turn amounts to an "existential threat" to township finances, should the association — also known as Old Mission Peninsula Wine Trail — and wineries prevail once the lawsuit goes to trial, according to the complaint.
Joe Infante, an attorney for the wineries and association, previously acknowledged some errors in the first report that resulted in the estimate being cut by nearly $70 million, which he said were corrected in the supplementary report.
Township Supervisor Isaiah Wunsch said the board authorized the suit in June following a closed session with legal counsel. The end of that meeting is omitted from the June 20 meeting minutes posted on the township's website, apparently because of a clerical error, he said. Peninsula's attorneys advised bringing the suit sooner rather than later to avoid any issues with legally imposed deadlines on bringing malpractice claims.
Wunsch otherwise declined to comment on the malpractice case, referring to the attorneys with Blaske & Blaske who brought the complaint for Peninsula.
John Turck, an attorney with firm Blaske & Blaske, declined by email to comment and referred to the malpractice complaint.
The township also accused Meihn of "purportedly" accepting a settlement agreement without the township board's approval. According to the complaint, that occurred in September 2021 when Meihn "apparently told the mediator and counsel for the Wineries that the parties had reached a deal" after then-Supervisor Rob Manigold and current township Clerk Rebecca Chown left the mediation meeting.
Messages for Meihn and Wise were left Friday afternoon.
Township board members later rejected that settlement, prompting the wineries and association to ask Maloney to sanction the township. Maloney agreed and awarded the plaintiffs $17,142.48.
The federal court sanctioned the township again for $12,993.20 when a courtroom dispute starting in April 2023 over potential conflicts of interest between attorneys for one of the township's liability insurers and attorneys for the wineries and association brought to light an insurance policy Meihn and Wise failed to produce. A federal court magistrate had ordered the township in September 2021 to turn over any insurance policies covering the township's expenses in the wineries lawsuit.
Maloney in June 2023 denied a request aiming to disqualify the association's and wineries' counsel, in part because the township's coverage by the insurer in question had ended several years prior, making the policy irrelevant to the wineries lawsuit.
Meihn and Wise worked on the wineries case from its start in October 2020, and joined their current firm, Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani, in February 2022 after leaving Foley Mansfield, according to past reports and correspondence included in the malpractice complaint. Both firms are named as defendants, and Thomas Quinn, a partner with Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani, declined by email to comment. Messages for Foley Mansfield were left Friday afternoon.
Meihn and Gordon Rees Scully & Mansukhani resigned as the township's general counsel, effective June 28, 2022, shortly after Maloney granted summary judgment against several of the ordinances being challenged in the wineries lawsuit.
In his opinion, Maloney cited instances where the township failed in part or in whole to counter the plaintiffs' arguments that township ordinances violated certain Constitutional principles, including those concerning dormant commerce and free speech.
Both Meihn and Wise were among the township's counsel of record until Feb. 7, 2023, court records show. That list has since grown to include eight attorneys as the case has carried on for more than three years, and grown to include Protect the Peninsula as an intervening defendant on certain issues.
Mediation aiming for a pretrial settlement to the wineries lawsuit is scheduled in March, Wunsch said. That's about six weeks before a trial set for the end of April, although that could change if mediation takes longer.
