Zerger & Mauer v. City of Greenwood, No. 12-2800 (8th Cir. 2014)
Annotate this CaseThis appeal is a companion to Baker v. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. The appeal concerns action the district court took while purporting to exercise jurisdiction over that dispute, namely, disqualifying plaintiffs' counsel (Zerger and Mauer). Greenwood sought Zerger and Mauer's disqualification due to a conflict of interest out of the attorneys' former representation of Greenwood and its current representation of plaintiffs. The district court entered the disqualification order based on its inherent need to manage its bar and uphold the rules of professional conduct. The record supported the district court's determination that the two matters were substantially related and there was a conflict of interest. Therefore, although the court concluded that the district court lacked jurisdiction over the merits case, the court concluded that the district court had authority to disqualify counsel and did not abuse its discretion in doing so.
Court Description: Civil case - Civil Procedure. For a related case, see the court's opinion in Baker v. Martin Marietta Materials, Inc., 745 F.3d 919 (8th Cir. 2014). While the court held in that case that the district court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction, the district court's lack of subject-jurisdiction over the merits case did not void its order disqualifying plaintiffs' counsel given the district court's inherent need to manage its bar and uphold the rules of professional conduct; the district court did not abuse its discretion by disqualifying counsel because counsel's prior representation of the City in a substantially-related matter presented a conflict of interest.
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