When Fred Burnside of law firm Davis Wright Tremaine, Googled the name of a lead plaintiff in a class action case against his client, he found out the man had been dead for years, according to a fascinating report from Bloomberg Law.
The plaintiff, Joe Villanueva, had filed a class action lawsuit against Rabobank in 2018, dying just six months after the filing. Davis Wright Tremaine confirmed this discovery with a death certificate. However, over the next five years, the lawyers representing Villanueva had acted as if he were still alive, making seven-figure settlement demands, rejecting offers, and filing amended complaints. Astonishingly, it was even certified in court records that deceased Villanueva had reviewed documents provided by the defendant.
Burnside alerted the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to Villanueva’s death in November 2021, arguing that the plaintiffs’ law firm had breached numerous ethics rules and had proven themselves to be incompetent to lead the class action. He is currently seeking over $1 million in fees for Rabobank, which no longer exists after being acquired by Mechanics Bank in 2019.
On their part, Villanueva’s lawyers claimed ignorance of their client’s death and are seeking to have Villanueva’s father take on the role of lead plaintiff. The lead law firm representing Villanueva is Washington DC-based Kaliel Gold. This leading law firm has filed numerous class actions targeting banks and credit unions over the charge of allegedly unfair or undisclosed “junk fees”. According to a Bloomberg Law search, led by 2005 Yale Law School graduate Jeffrey Kaliel, the firm has appeared in at least 175 cases in federal court, mostly since 2018.
Kaliel Gold, a firm comprising four lawyers, has successfully earned significant fees over the years. In 2021, the firm earned more than $10 million in a $75 million settlement with Bank of America and earned part of a $2.6 million attorney fee award in a different case against Bank of America. It also earned over $2 million in a 2021 settlement with Capital One over ATM fees.
Amazingly, Villanueva’s case isn’t the only instance of a deceased client being represented by Kaliel Gold – the law firm has done so in at least three other cases since August 2022. However, unlike Villanueva’s situation, courts were alerted much more quickly (between 25 days and eight months after death) in the other three instances.
As it stands, a legal battle over the allegations of ethical misconduct seems to be on the horizon for Kaliel Gold. The court will hear arguments in the Villanueva case in February.