A Philadelphia judge has imposed sanctions amounting to $401 per F-word on a mortgage company owner with a Tony Soprano-style vocabulary and his attorney for their behavior toward opposing counsel in a deposition.

Aaron Wider “used the word 'fuck' and variants thereof no less than 73 times” in an effort “solely to intimidate and demean opposing counsel,” U.S. District Judge Eduardo C. Robreno said in fining Wider and attorney Joseph R. Ziccardi of Chicago a total of $29,322.61.

As portions of the deposition videotape make clear, several of the exchanges between Wider and Robert B. Bodzin, an attorney representing GMAC Bank of Philadelphia, are enough to make even a wiseguy blush. GMAC sued Wider's company, HTFC Corp., for breach of contract in 2006.

“And what do the initials HTFC mean?” Bodzin asked at one point.

“Hit That Fuckin’ Clown,” Wider replied. “That’s what it means. It’s an acronym.”

Wider referred to Bodzin as a “clown” throughout the 12 hours of a deposition that was conducted over two days in September and November 2007. HTFC actually stands for High Tech Financial Corp., which is based in Garden City, N.Y.

In his order granting Bodzin's motion for sanctions, Robreno chastised Ziccardi for sitting “idly by as a mere spectator to Wider’s abusive, obstructive, and evasive behavior” when “any reasonable attorney representing Wider would have intervened in an effort to curb Wider’s misconduct.”

“Wider’s conduct was outrageous. Ziccardi’s complicity is inexcusable,” he concluded.

Ziccardi is now seeking to withdraw as counsel for Wider, citing a “conflict of interest” resulting from “[r]ecent rulings in this lawsuit.” In a motion to reconsider the sanctions, he also argues that he made “significant, repeated efforts” to curb Wider's behavior off the record.

But Robreno has already rejected that argument, saying that “Wider’s continuing misconduct indicates that whatever efforts Ziccardi made were woefully ineffectual.”

The judge also referred in his order to Ziccardi's “snickering” during the deposition. Ziccardi insists that “the 'snicker' ... was that of Raymond Voulo, the deponent’s New York counsel.”

By Matthew Heller
4/7/08