Opinion ID: 2995647
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Campania’s Voluntary Dismissal and

Text: Proposed Amended Answer Campania retained the Rooks law firm in October 1994, after Scott Mann, a person with disabilities, sued MRSI and a co- defendant, alleging that they were responsible for supplying him with a defective wheelchair that collapsed and caused him to fall to the ground and fracture his right arm. MRSI was insured by Credit General Insurance (CGI), a large insurance corporation. CGI hired Campania to retain counsel and manage the defense of any claims brought against CGI’s insureds. Campania selected the Rooks law firm to represent MRSI and agreed to pay Rooks’s attorneys and paralegals hourly rates of $160 and $65, respectively. The contract further required that Rooks submit monthly invoices to Campania and, in turn, be reimbursed every sixty days for all of its reasonable fees and expenses. The lawsuit against MRSI progressed in Illinois state court and eventually settled in September 1999 after Mann backed down from his original demand for $6.1 million and dismissed his claim in exchange for $475,000 payable over seven years. Rooks thereafter presented Campania with a final invoice for $101,143 in fees and expenses. Campania refused to pay, asserting that Rooks had breached the contract by failing to submit monthly invoices to Campania between July 1998 and September 1999. Campania also maintained that Rooks had performed legal services that were substandard because Rooks was unable to convince the state trial judge to allow MRSI to bring a counterclaim for indemnity against the co-defendant, thus barring the possibility of any recovery of settlement costs from the co- defendant. In response to Campania’s actions, Rooks sued Campania in state court for breach of contract. Campania, in turn, filed a separate legal malpractice claim against Rooks. Both of these cases were removed to federal court, consolidated, and assigned to U.S. District Judge Suzanne