Nguyen v. Wells Fargo, N.A.
- Edward Chen
- 3:20-cv-07991
- U.S. District Court · Northern District of California
- 6
In Nguyen v. Wells Fargo, Judge Chen denied dismissal, awarded $1,620 in sanctions against Phuong Nguyen, and declined to charge Michael Flores.
Phuong Nguyen must pay the Wells Fargo Defendants $1,620 within 30 days. Michael Flores was not held liable for the sanction. The request to dismiss Nguyen’s claims was denied.
What happened
In Nguyen v. Wells Fargo, the court considered a sanctions request after Phuong Nguyen and Michael Flores opposed the government’s request to link two related federal cases. The defendants claimed that Nguyen used an attorney’s name and electronic signature without permission on a filing for Nguyen DDS.
The court found that Nguyen acted in bad faith by filing the document with the attorney’s name and signature after he had said he did not want his name on it. The defendants requested dismissal of Nguyen’s claims and $2,365.20 in attorneys’ fees. The court found dismissal was not an appropriate response to the misconduct and found that the requested fee amount was excessive.
The court granted in part and denied in part the sanctions motion. It denied dismissal, ordered Nguyen to pay the Wells Fargo Defendants $1,620 within 30 days, and declined to hold Flores responsible because the record did not sufficiently show that he knew about the falsified signature. Judge Edward Chen also warned that further dishonesty could lead to more severe sanctions, including dismissal with prejudice.
The detailed version
- Nguyen v. Wells Fargo, N.A. · No. 3:20-cv-07991
- Edward Chen
- Dec. 16, 2022
Background
The court had entered a final judgment in the earlier round of this case in January 2021 after concluding that it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. Almost two years later, the federal government asked the court to treat that action as related to another federal action. Phuong Nguyen opposed that request, as did Michael Flores, who was a defendant in the other action.
After the opposition briefs were filed, the Wells Fargo Defendants moved for sanctions under the court’s inherent authority, and the A.J.E. Defendants joined the motion. They requested two sanctions: dismissal of Nguyen’s claims in the related case and an attorneys’ fee award of $2,365.20 against Nguyen and Flores. They argued that Nguyen had forged an attorney’s signature on a filing opposing the request to relate the cases.
Legal standard
The court explained that its inherent authority to impose sanctions must be used carefully. Before imposing a sanction based on bad faith, the court had to find that the party acted with bad intent or an improper purpose. Any sanction also had to be tailored to the misconduct and the resulting harm.
Dismissal request
The court denied the request to dismiss Nguyen’s claims. It stated that, even if Nguyen had forged the attorney’s signature, dismissal would not be tailored to address that misconduct. The court considered only the alleged forgery in this sanctions motion and did not decide other alleged misconduct described elsewhere by the Wells Fargo Defendants.
Monetary sanction
The court found that Nguyen filed an opposition brief for Phuong T. Nguyen, D.D.S., Inc. using Paul Edward Manasian’s name and electronic signature without his authorization. Because the company could appear in the district court only through a member of the court’s bar, the attorney’s name and signature were important to the filing. The court relied in part on an email exchange submitted by Nguyen, in which Manasian said he was not comfortable filing the pleading for the company and told Nguyen that she needed to sign it herself.
The court found that Nguyen’s conduct was not an innocent mistake or negligence but was done in bad faith. It therefore found a monetary sanction appropriate. The defendants requested $2,365.20 for 7.3 hours of work at an hourly rate of $324. The court found the request excessive because the order was issued before significant additional work was needed and because the issue was simple. It determined that five hours was reasonable and awarded $1,620.
The court declined to hold Flores jointly and severally liable. Although it had serious concerns about whether Nguyen and Flores were working together improperly in the litigation, the record did not sufficiently show that Flores knew Nguyen had falsified Manasian’s signature.
Disposition
The court granted in part and denied in part the motion for sanctions. It denied the request for dismissal and granted the request for a monetary sanction, but only in the amount of $1,620 and only against Nguyen. Nguyen was ordered to pay the Wells Fargo Defendants within 30 days. The court warned that further dishonest conduct could result in more severe sanctions, including dismissal with prejudice. The order disposed of Docket No. 71.
Read the full 6-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.