Opinion ID: 2973315
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Grant of Sanctions

Text: The District Court was also within its discretion to sanction Shine’s counsel under Rule 11. Rule 11 “is intended to discourage pleadings that are frivolous, legally unreasonable, or without factual foundation, even though the paper was not filed in subjective bad faith.” Lieb v. Topstone Indus. Inc., 788 F.2d 151, 157 (3d Cir. 1986) 7 Shine focused much of her brief on whether or not administrative remedies need to be exhausted under Title IX, rather than Title VII. While it is true that Title IX has no such requirement, the District Court clarified for Shine that she needed to plead that she exhausted her Title VII claim. In any event, both Shine’s Title VII and Title IX claims were time barred as a matter of law. See supra at 6-8. 8 (internal quotation marks omitted). Shine argues that her counsel’s submission of the nearly identical FAC was accidental. So it may have been. It is clear, however, that the District Court did not impose sanctions for counsel’s inadvertent filing, but rather for his repeated refusal to withdraw an admittedly deficient document, despite numerous promises to do so. The District Court rightly determined that as a result of this conduct, the Board was forced to file a motion to strike a document that all parties long understood was deficient. Rule 11 sanctions are meant to deter precisely this form of redundant and avoidable litigation, and these sanctions were appropriately tailored by the District Court to the specific costs incurred by the Board in moving to strike. See Doering v. Union Cty. Bd. of Chosen Freeholders, 857 F.2d 191, 193 (3d Cir. 1988) (stating that Rule 11 “provides for compensation to defendants to reimburse them for legal fees that they should not have been forced to incur”).