Source: s3://data.kl3m.ai/documents/govinfo/USCOURTS/USCOURTS-azd-2_14-cv-02706/USCOURTS-azd-2_14-cv-02706-2/pdf.json

Nature of Suit Code: 190
Nature of Suit: Other Contract Actions
Cause of Action: 28:1332 Diversity-Breach of Contract

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WO 

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 

FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 

Barry M Atkins, 

Plaintiff, 

v. 

Calypso Systems Incorporated, et al., 

Defendants. 

No. CV-14-02706-PHX-NVW

ORDER 

 Before the Court is Defendant’s Motion for Recovery of Attorneys’ Fees and 

Costs (Docs. 82, 85), Plaintiff’s Responses (Docs. 90, 91), and Defendant’s Reply (Doc. 

96). The Court grants the motion in part and will award fees against Plaintiff. The Court 

denies the motion for fees and sanctions against Plaintiff’s counsel. 

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND 

 On November 16, 2016, this Court granted summary judgment for defendants 

Calypso Systems Incorporated and Eden Kim (“Calypso”) in an action filed by plaintiff 

Barry Atkins. (Doc. 80.) That action alleged various contract and tort claims stemming 

from a 2008 conversion agreement between the two parties. The facts are discussed at 

length in that order. The following summary recaps those findings pertinent to the 

present motion. 

 The saga began in 2007 when Atkins, a long-time financial investor, provided a 

bridge financing loan to Calypso, a Silicon Valley startup. (Technically speaking, the 

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loan was furnished by “Adventure Ventures,” a corporation owned and operated by 

Atkins and his wife. Atkins acted as an agent of Adventure during all times relevant to 

this case, and all of Adventure’s interests in Calypso were transferred to Atkins 

personally prior to this action.) The initial loan was for $125,000. Upon Calypso’s 

request Atkins increased it to $137,000 as of January 2008. 

In 2008, amid talks to merge with another company, Calypso reached out to all its 

investors and asked them to convert their outstanding debt interests into stock, essentially 

discharging Calypso from its debts to them in exchange for ownership shares in the 

company. Atkins was one such investor. During 2008, Atkins and Calypso exchanged 

and signed documents that, by their express terms, converted Atkins’s loan debt into 

Calypso stock. A number of subsequent written communications between the two 

reflected that both parties believed this mutually. In 2014, however, Atkins demanded 

Calypso repay its loans after its merger efforts fell through. When Calypso refused 

because of the debt-to-stock conversion, Atkins filed this action alleging breach of 

contract and the torts of fraud, negligent misrepresentation, conversion, and unjust 

enrichment. 

In his complaint and subsequent affidavits, Atkins purported that Eden Kim, 

Calypso’s founder and CEO, made a number of oral assurances to the effect that the 

conversion would not be final until the company actually merged and that Atkins’s debt 

would eventually be repaid. Atkins maintained over the course of litigation that no one 

from Calypso ever told him they believed the debt had converted to stock. He further 

maintained that Kim “lulled” him into letting various statutes of limitation pass by 

repeatedly assuring him a merger was imminent. However, as discovery progressed, 

more and more evidence emerged that Atkins knew (and, until 2014, did not contest that) 

his loan debt had converted to Calypso stock pursuant to a contract he himself signed. In 

June of 2016, after moving for summary judgment but before submitting its brief in reply 

to Atkins’s response, Calypso learned from a third party that Atkins had also been 

deposed in a separate 2009 proceeding but had not turned over the deposition transcript in 

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the course of discovery. The deposition transcript showed Atkins admitting point blank 

that as of 2009, Calypso had in fact communicated to him their position that the loan debt 

had converted into stock. 

Calypso filed a motion to dismiss on March 2, 2015, which this Court granted in 

part and denied in part. The Court dismissed Atkins’s claim of fraud, which was 

insufficiently pled pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 9(b). The Court permitted 

the rest of his claims to move forward on the facts alleged. After several of the discovery 

revelations described above, Calypso filed a motion for summary judgment on May 3, 

2016. This Court granted that motion in full. 

II. ATTORNEYS’ FEES AGAINST ATKINS 

A. Legal Standards 

 The default rule for an action seeking attorneys’ fees is the so-called “American 

Rule”: regardless of the outcome, litigants pay their own fees unless a statute or contract 

specifies otherwise. Marx v. General Revenue Corp., — U.S. —, 133 S. Ct. 1166, 1175 

(2013). However, it is well-accepted that “federal courts have inherent power to award 

attorney’s fees in a narrow set of circumstances, including when a party brings an action 

in bad faith.” Id. 

In addition, Arizona provides a statutory basis for courts to assess attorneys’ fees 

against a party “[i]n any contested action arising out of a contract, express or 

implied . . . .” Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 12-341.01(A). An action arises out of a contract “when 

the duty breached is ‘created by the contractual relationship, and would not exist but for 

the contract.’” Assyia v. State Farm Mut. Auto. Ins. Co., 229 Ariz. 216, 220, 273 P.3d 

668, 672 (Ariz. Ct. App. 2012) (quoting Barmat v. John & Jane Doe Partners A-D, 155 

Ariz. 519, 523, 747 P.2d 1218, 1222 (1987)) (internal quotation marks omitted). See also 

ASH, Inc. v. Mesa Unified Sch. Dist. No. 4, 138 Ariz. 190, 192, 673 P.2d 934, 936 (Ariz. 

Ct. App. 1983) (“[A]s used in A.R.S. § 12-341.01, the words ‘arising out of a contract’ 

describe an action in which a contract was a factor causing the dispute.”). 

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B. Analysis 

Beyond the Court’s inherent sanctioning power, the parties were instructed to 

address in their briefing whether section 12-341.01 calls for attorneys’ fees to be assessed 

against Atkins for both his breach of contract claims and his tort claims. (Doc. 88.) 

Calypso argues the statute does apply, but that the Court can and should award fees under 

its inherent power either way. (Doc. 96 at 2.) As Atkins correctly points out, this Court 

previously determined that he and Calypso chose California law to govern the contract 

out of which this dispute arose. (Doc. 43 at 15.) As a result, Atkins argues section 12-

341.01 is inapplicable to his contract claims and does not justify an award for his tort 

claims. (Doc. 91 at 5.) He does not contest the Court’s inherent power to assess fees 

generally but does insist fees are not warranted in his case.

1. Contract Claims 

The applicability of section 12-341.01 to Atkins’s contract claims is somewhat 

murky given the parties’ contractual California choice-of-law provision. But the issue 

need not be decided here, because this Court also has the inherent power to “assess 

attorney’s fees when a party has acted in bad faith, vexatiously, wantonly, or for 

oppressive reasons.” Chambers v. NASCO, Inc., 501 U.S. 32, 45-46 (1991) (internal 

quotation marks omitted). Among the circumstances in which this applies, a court may 

grant fees where it finds “that fraud has been practiced upon it.” Id. “Because of their 

very potency, inherent powers must be exercised with restraint and discretion.” Id. at 44. 

Harnessing all restraint, this case still warrants an exercise of the Court’s inherent 

power to assess attorneys’ fees. Underpinning this whole action were Atkins’s 

allegations that Calypso had repeatedly assured him they would repay his loan despite 

having neither merged nor gone public, their signed loan conversion documents 

notwithstanding. According to Atkins’s declarations, he had no idea prior to 2014 that 

Calypso believed his loan debt had converted to stock. A claim based on those 

allegations, though improbable in the extreme, would not necessarily be frivolous or 

fraudulent. The case accordingly went to discovery. As discussed in the summary 

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judgment order, discovery revealed that even these allegations were false—and that 

Atkins knew they were false from the outset. The record shows that someone from 

Calypso emailed Atkins in August of 2008 asking him whether his Calypso stock 

certificates should be in his own name or in the name of his corporation. (Doc. 71, ¶ 16; 

Doc. 74, ¶ 16.) Rather than expressing confusion, as would be expected of someone 

denying he had converted his debt to stock, Atkins simply replied that his stock should be 

in the name of his corporation. (Id.) When deposed for this case, Atkins first tried to 

deny this email exchange ever happened—but then conceded it did when confronted with 

copies of the emails by opposing counsel. (Doc. 77-1 at 34-36.) 

In addition, Atkins testified in an unrelated 2009 deposition that during a thenrecent conversation with Calypso, Calypso had squarely told him “they were under the 

impression that they had converted [the bridge loan debt] into stock.” (Doc. 75 at 24.) 

Despite receiving pertinent discovery requests, Atkins did not inform Calypso of this 

testimony until Calypso obtained it through a third party and brought it to his attention. 

Whatever credit might be due to him for promptly responding with a copy of the 

transcript (Doc. 90 at 10-11) is far outweighed by the duplicity of his Amended 

Declaration (Doc. 75), filed shortly after the dust-up. Seemingly unconcerned about his 

sworn statement to the contrary coming to light, Atkins doubled down on previous 

assertions that Eden Kim “never told me prior to the middle of 2014 that he considered 

Adventure’s debt of $137,000 plus interest to have been permanently converted into 

Calypso’s stock,” that during a 2014 phone call “Kim had told me for the very first time, 

that Adventure’s loan had been converted to Calypso’s stock,” and that Kim “misled me 

by concealing from me his opinion that he considered Adventure’s loan to have been 

converted into Calypso stock.” (Doc. 75, ¶¶ 80, 83, 95.) Atkins did add several items to 

his affidavit in light of the 2009 deposition, but none of them so much as attempted to 

explain his contradictory testimony. (Doc. 75, ¶¶ 110-23.) 

The Court is nonplussed but not fooled. Calypso caught Atkins lying about the 

central issue giving rise to his claims. It is not fraud to bring a legal action, however 

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weak, in good faith. But where Atkins’s own sworn testimony reveals he knew his 

factual assertions to be a lie, it is clear Atkins pursued the action fraudulently. The Court 

would be in dereliction of its duty to ensure justice if it did not use its inherent powers to 

assess fees against Atkins. 

2. Tort Claims 

The above analysis regarding the Court’s inherent power to assess fees applies to 

Atkins’s contract and tort claims alike. Fees can and will be awarded for both. 

On top of this, regardless of whether the parties’ contractual choice-of-law 

provision insulates Atkins’s contract claims from section 12-341.01, the Court previously 

ruled that Atkins’s tort claims are governed by Arizona law. (Doc. 80 at 15.) Section 12-

341.01 pertains to “any contested action arising out of a contract” in Arizona. Ariz. Rev. 

Stat. § 12-341.01(A). To the extent Atkins’s tort claims “aris[e] out of a contract,” 

Calypso may therefore be entitled to attorneys’ fees for work defending those claims. 

a. All Atkins’s Tort Claims Arose from the Contract. 

In his First Amended Complaint, Atkins alleged the torts of fraud, negligent 

misrepresentation, unjust enrichment, and conversion. His theories for each of these are 

mostly vague and general, failing to connect legal theories to facts. The essential 

allegation appears to be that Calypso breached its contract to repay his loan, and in doing 

so unlawfully obtained possession of the funds on loan (conversion), made false and 

misleading statements about repaying him (fraud and negligent misrepresentation), all the 

while turning a profit off their ill-gotten gains (unjust enrichment). See Doc. 17, ¶¶ 67-

115. All of these alleged torts arose out of the parties’ contract, which served as the 

predicate for each one. 

Atkins does not dispute that either the fraud or negligent misrepresentation claims 

arose out of the contract but offers separate arguments disputing the other two. He first 

contends that unjust enrichment “is an equitable cause of action that is asserted in the 

alternative if the Court finds that there was no contract,” but that since there was a 

contract here, “unjust enrichment has no further application.” (Doc. 91 at 8.) Yet the 

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apparent theory behind his unjust enrichment claim was that Calypso pocketed a loan it 

had a contractual obligation to repay. See Doc. 17, ¶ 102 (“Defendants have been 

enriched by retaining amounts which belong to Atkins.”). By his upside-down logic, 

section 12-341.01 would exclude fees incurred defending any alternative theory in a 

breach of contract action, no matter how frivolous, so long as that theory was predicated 

on the non-existence of a contract—the very thing making it a “breach of contract” action 

at all. This is patently incorrect. If anything, Atkins’s unjust enrichment claim was made 

even more frivolous by the overwhelming evidence that a contract in fact existed. 

Atkins next argues Calypso cannot seek fees for his conversion claim because “the 

underlying loan to Calypso merely placed Atkins and Defendants within ‘tortious striking 

distance’ of one another,” and that, based on their relationship, Calypso owed Atkins a 

duty “not to convert the proceeds of the loan or, alternatively, the shares that [he] then 

owned in Calypso.” (Doc. 91 at 9.) This essentially admits Calypso’s very claim: the 

parties’ “relationship” was that of parties to a loan contract. Calypso’s duty would not 

have existed but for that contract. See Assyia, 229 Ariz. at 220, 273 P.3d at 672. 

The Court finds that all of Atkins’s meritless and fraudulent tort claims arose out 

of his contract with Calypso. 

b. Fees Should Be Awarded for All Tort Claims. 

When deciding whether to award fees under section 12-341.01, a court should 

consider (1) “[t]he merits of the claim or defense presented by the unsuccessful party”; 

(2) whether “[t]he litigation could have been avoided or settled and the successful party’s 

efforts were completely superfluous in achieving the result”; (3) whether “[a]ssessing 

fees against the unsuccessful party would cause an extreme hardship”; (4) whether “[t]he 

successful party . . . prevail[ed] with respect to all of the relief sought”; (5) “the novelty 

of the legal question presented, and whether such a claim or defense had previously been 

adjudicated in this jurisdiction”; and (6) “whether the award in any particular case would 

discourage other parties with tenable claims or defenses from litigating or defending 

legitimate contract issues for fear of incurring liability for substantial amounts of 

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attorney’s fees.” Associated Indem. Corp. v. Warner, 143 Ariz. 567, 570, 694 P.2d 1181, 

1184 (1985). 

Applying these factors, fees against Atkins are more than warranted in this case. 

Not a single claim Atkins brought had any merit. The entire action could (and should) 

have been avoided by not grounding it on fraud and perjury. While Atkins contends an 

award would cause hardship, he has produced no evidence to back this up. The only 

novelty of Atkins’s claims was the novelty of fraudulent factual assertions within his 

knowledge to be false. He had no case at all under the true facts of his case, and he 

especially had no colorable tort claims under any of the theories he proposed. Because of 

the nature of his case, assessing fees against him would not deter claims worthy of 

resolution, including claims that fail in the end. 

Each of Atkins’s arguments to the contrary is unpersuasive. First, he argues his 

claims were meritorious, asserting that his claims “were supported by documentary and 

other e-mail communications, and did not rest . . . upon mere speculations,” adding that 

had the case proceeded, his claims “were susceptible of proof at trial and, thus, 

meritorious.” (Id.) Ironically, “documentary and other e-mail communications” are 

precisely the evidence of Atkins’s fraud on the court. All the operative documents over 

several years confirmed the conversion of debt to stock, and it was only Atkins’s 

assertions in defiance of the transaction documents that got this case past dismissal on the 

pleadings. The Court has thoroughly explained why Atkins’s claims are without merit. 

See Doc. 80. Those explanations still stand here. 

Second, Atkins argues that litigation could not have been avoided or the case 

settled because, “on several occasions, [he] attempted to avoid the instant litigation with 

Defendants and to obtain from them some payments,” lamenting that “Defendants failed 

and refused to pay reasonable sums greater than nuisance value, leaving Atkins with no 

choice except to initiate litigation.” (Doc. 91 at 11.) To call this “tone deaf” would be an 

understatement. Litigation could have been avoided by not bringing it in the first place, 

or by dropping it, sham affidavits and all, especially after the fraud was conclusively 

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established from Atkins’s prior testimony. 

Third, Atkins points to the “extreme hardship” an assessment of fees would cause 

him, in light of purported Internal Revenue Service liens and a defense verdict pending 

against him in a separate unmeritorious case he brought. (Doc. 91 at 11.) The Court 

takes considerations of hardship very seriously when deciding whether to award fees. 

Atkins, however, has made his career as a financial investor and pursued this action with 

privately retained counsel at the helm. If other pending legal judgments leave him unable 

to withstand an attorneys’ fee award here, he will have to provide something more than 

bare conclusions about his inability to pay. He has not met his burden of showing 

hardship here. Moreover, difficulty in paying for the harm done by his own fraudulent 

and extortionate lawsuit carries no equity. 

Fourth, while he concedes that he did not prevail on any claims, Atkins argues that 

he presented at least one novel legal question, namely “whether the loan made to Calypso 

was converted to Calypso’s non-public stock despite the failure of [a merger].” (Doc. 91 

at 11.) This question, which was answered by reading the contract the parties signed, is 

not novel. More importantly, it was not presented by Atkins in good faith. Atkins did 

not need a court to tell him the loan had converted into stock—multiple documents 

revealed that to him several years ago, documents Atkins neither questioned nor objected 

to when he received them. See Doc. 70 at 8; Doc. 71, ¶¶ 16-20. 

Finally, Atkins contends a fee award “would discourage pursuit of meritorious 

claims.” (Doc. 91 at 11-12.) He provides no support for this claim aside from various 

conclusory assertions about chilling “meritorious and novel claims,” even though his case 

was neither meritorious nor novel. What a fee award here will discourage is just the 

opposite: frivolous and fraudulent claims carried out in bad faith. That is part of what fee 

awards are designed to do, together with compensating litigants harmed by such 

litigation. 

Under section 12-341.01, attorneys’ fees should be assessed against Atkins for 

each tort claim. As those fees were inextricably intertwined with all other fees incurred 

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in the defense, so reasonable fees on the entire case should be awarded. See Design 

Trend Int’l Interiors, Ltd. v. Cathay Enterprises, Inc., 103 F. Supp. 3d 1051, 1065 (D. 

Ariz. 2015). Given the strong and redundant legal bases to assess fees against Atkins on 

all his claims, all reasonable attorneys’ fees for work actually and reasonably done on 

these claims will be awarded. 

3. Fee Amount 

Atkins contends that the fees sought by Calypso are “exorbitant and unreasonable” 

under Arizona law. Calypso retained three attorneys and one paralegal to work on this 

case. The three attorneys billed at $450, $350, and $300 per hour, respectively. The 

paralegal billed at $195 per hour. (Doc. 85-1 at 3-4.) The Court finds as a fact that those 

were reasonable rates. In total, Calypso seeks $55,000 in fees and $3,750 in costs 

(including taxable costs) for expenses incurred prior to its motion for attorney’s fees 

(Doc. 82 at 2), plus additional fees incurred in pursuing the fee motion itself. The fee as 

a whole is entirely reasonable for this case, protracted by Atkins’s fraudulent assertions 

and his concealment of material evidence against him. The Court finds the claimed fees 

reasonable, even modest, and rejects all objections to the amount sought. Calypso may 

submit additional briefing to establish a precise amount in additional fees, and Atkins will 

have the opportunity to respond. 

III. ATTORNEY SANCTIONS 

Like fees assessed against a party, authority to issue sanctions against counsel may 

arise from statute. Among others, Title 28, section 1927, United States Code provides: 

Any attorney or other person admitted to conduct cases in any court of the 

United States or any Territory thereof who so multiplies the proceedings in 

any case unreasonably and vexatiously may be required by the court to 

satisfy personally the excess costs, expenses, and attorneys’ fees reasonably 

incurred because of such conduct. 

28 U.S.C. § 1927. Section 1927 applies only to individual attorneys, not to law firms or 

parties themselves. See Sneller v. City of Bainbridge Island, 606 F.3d 636, 640 (9th Cir. 

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2010) (sanctions under section 1927 authorized “only upon counsel”); Kaass Law v. 

Wells Fargo Bank, N.A., 799 F.3d 1290, 1294 (9th Cir. 2015) (“[Section] 1927 does not 

permit the award of sanctions against a law firm”). 

Additionally, the Court’s inherent power also encompasses the power to extend 

sanctions to attorneys “who willfully abuse judicial processes.” Roadway Exp., Inc. v. 

Piper, 447 U.S. 752, 766-67 (1980). When invoking the court’s inherent power, 

sanctions against lawyers and litigants alike require “fair notice and an opportunity for a 

hearing on the record.” Id. at 767.

Calypso argues that in addition to the fees imposed on Atkins, Atkins’s attorney, 

David Marhoffer, should be sanctioned. Despite originally asking for sanctions under 

Rule 11, Calypso has since rescinded that claim based on its own failure to comply with 

the rule’s “safe harbor” provision requiring 21 days’ notice to opposing counsel. The 

Rule 11 claim is therefore moot. Beyond this Calypso cites both section 1927 and the 

inherent powers of the Court as grounds for sanctioning Marhoffer. 

A. Section 1927

 Calypso urges sanctions against Marhoffer, Marhoffer’s law firm, and Atkins 

under section 1927. (Doc. 85 at 5-8.) However, only Marhoffer as an individual attorney 

can be sanctioned under this provision. See Sneller, 606 F.3d at 640. 

 Despite mixed guidance in previous cases, the Ninth Circuit has recently clarified 

that under section 1927, a court may sanction an attorney whose actions in litigating only 

fell to the level of recklessness. Braunstein v. Arizona Dep’t of Transp., 683 F.3d 1177, 

1189 (9th Cir. 2012); B.K.B. v. Maui Police Dep’t, 276 F.3d 1091, 1107 (9th Cir. 2002); 

Fink v. Gomez, 239 F.3d 989, 993 (9th Cir. 2001). While sanctions are often imposed 

where counsel exhibited recklessness plus something more, courts in practice hesitate to 

sanction lawyers upon a finding of recklessness alone. Compare B.K.B., 276 F.3d at 

1107 (upholding section 1927 sanctions where district court found trial counsel’s flouting 

of evidence rule amounted to “recklessness plus knowledge”), with Braunstein, 683 F.3d 

at 1189 (reversing district court imposition of section 1927 sanctions where trial court 

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quickly dismissed barred claims and opposing party conceded plaintiff “did not file 

repetitive motions or generate an extraordinary volume of paperwork”). 

 There is no doubt Marhoffer should have considered it a red flag when, in 

November 2015, he received in discovery ample documentation that Atkins knew and 

acknowledged the nature of his Calypso holdings. Further alarms should have sounded 

on March 23, 2016, when Calypso deposed Atkins and caught him in a lie over his email 

exchange with Eden Kim. And by June 7, 2016, when Atkins’s 2009 deposition came to 

light, one can infer Marhoffer knew that Atkins was very likely pursuing a fraudulent 

action. 

However, Marhoffer filed the bulk of Atkins’s filings in this case prior to March 

23, 2016. After that point, Marhoffer filed a response to Calypso’s motion for summary 

judgment on June 6, 2016—one day before Calypso’s counsel brought the 2009 

deposition transcript to Marhoffer’s attention. Marhoffer filed an affidavit and statement 

of facts on Atkins’s behalf on June 7, the same day the transcript was revealed. (Docs. 

73, 74.) He then filed an amended declaration on June 8. (Doc. 75.) The only other 

motions Marhoffer filed were a Motion to Alter or Amend Judgment (Doc. 84), and the 

briefing in the instant motion. Since filing the response brief on this motion, Marhoffer 

has withdrawn as counsel of record. 

Thus, assuming these various revelations were Marhoffer’s first notice of Atkins’s 

fraud, it is hard to conclude he proceeded recklessly. The bulk of his filings after March 

23, 2016, were defensive in nature. After the 2009 deposition came to light, Atkins 

promptly filed an amended declaration (albeit one insufficiently addressing his 

contradictory testimony). The only questionable filing produced after March but before 

Marhoffer’s withdrawal was the Motion to Alter or Amend, which was unnecessary and 

was summarily denied without a response. Marhoffer may have filed this single 

excessive motion. But even if that amounted to recklessness, Calypso incurred no legal 

fees in defending it. As for the rest of his actions, Calypso has not produced sufficient 

evidence to establish Marhoffer acted recklessly. Sanctions under section 1927 against 

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Atkins’s counsel are unwarranted. 

B. Inherent Powers of the Court

Unlike the standard imposed by section 1927, “sanctions imposed under the 

district court’s inherent authority require a bad faith finding.” Braunstein, 683 F.3d at 

1189 (quoting Lahiri, 606 F.3d at 1219). This includes “a variety of types of willful 

actions, including recklessness when combined with an additional factor such as 

frivolousness, harassment, or an improper purpose.” Fink, 239 F.3d at 994. 

Repeating its charges of perjury against Atkins, Calypso insists that “[e]ven if it 

was not reckless at the outset, counsel’s conduct was reckless and in bad faith once it saw 

the documentation in disclosures and at deposition and then when it saw Plaintiff’s 

testimony was perjured.” (Doc. 85 at 8.) But Calypso must offer more than threadbare 

accusations to establish bad faith. On the record here, the Court cannot conclude 

Marhoffer litigated this case in bad faith. Sanctions predicated on the Court’s inherent 

powers are not warranted. 

IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED that Defendant’s Motion for Recovery of 

Attorneys’ Fees and Costs (Doc. 82) is granted as to attorneys’ fees against plaintiff 

Barry M. Atkins in the amount of $58,750, plus such additional fees as may be claimed 

and awarded. 

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the motion (Doc. 82) is denied as to sanctions 

against Plaintiff’s counsel. 

IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that Calypso may file by March 24, 2017, 

documentation in support of additional fees requested beyond the documentation supplied 

with the original motion. Atkins may file a response by March 31, 2017. 

Dated this 16th day of March, 2017. 

Neil V. Wake

Senior United States District Judge

Case 2:14-cv-02706-NVW Document 107 Filed 03/16/17 Page 13 of 13