Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Board Member Janice Keating has been served with a claim for attorneys’ fees amounting to $53,864.50. The claim resulted from Keating’s May 14 suit against MID and fellow Board Member Robert Frobose for gender bias.
Frobose and MID responded to Keating’s allegations with an anti-SLAPP (Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation) counter-suit. They prevailed when Stanislaus Superior Court Judge John R Mayne ruled against her claims on August 15.
On October 25, attorneys for Frobose and MID requested the court require,
“Plaintiff JANICE KEATING (“Plaintiff”) to reimburse Defendants for their reasonable attorneys’ fees in the amount of $53,864.50, pursuant to California Code of Civil Procedure section 425.16(c), which provides that a prevailing defendant on a special motion to strike “shall” be entitled to recover attorneys’ fees. “
Frobose’s and MID’s attorneys had argued that Keating’s claims were “frivolous” and “unlikely to prevail” in court. Observers who followed the case noted that Keating’s claims depended heavily on testimony from former MID Counsel Wesley Miliband and Public Affairs Manager Melissa Williams. As time passed, it became apparent Miliband and Williams weren’t going to support Keating’s claims.
Now that Frobose and MID have prevailed in court, Keating faces the burden of a $53,864.50 penalty. That sum accrued as attorneys for Frobose and MID,
“were forced to expend time to investigate Plaintiff’s allegations and to evaluate the legal claims. When it was determined that the claims were frivolous and designed to strategically discourage public participation, Defendants were forced to expend even more time to file an anti-SLAPP suit.”
Anti-SLAPP litigation grew out of the realization that growing numbers of lawsuits in the past were being used to discourage participation in matters of public policy. Even in cases without legal merit, defendants were often forced to spend time and money defending themselves against opponents who could afford litigation as a cost of doing business. Lawsuits became weapons against free speech and public participation.
Frobose and Keating have clashed over issues involving water sales outside the Modesto Basin, but they have had few other disagreements. Ironically, one of their few major disputes concerned rehiring MID attorney Ronda Lucas, who had prevailed in a gender discrimination lawsuit against the district after being terminated in 2019. Keating was opposed to rehiring someone who had sued the district.
Now, Janice Keating has not only sued the district, she’s on the hook for $53,864.50. She has until December 6 to compose an argument that will enable her to avoid paying the bill for Frobose’s and MID’s attorneys.
“I ran for office to protect MID ratepayers’ water and keep rates reasonable for water and electricity,” said Robert Frobose when commenting on the lawsuit last Saturday.
“A lawsuit against MID is a lawsuit against the public and the public doesn’t deserve to pay one penny of this money because none of the allegations are true.”
I wonder if the water broker Bill Lyons will pay the $53,864.50. with the revenue from his 10,000 acre feet of water which includes groundwater sales that he ships out of the Over-drafted Modesto Sub-Basin ???
any insight to the election overturning a seated MID board member with a new guy, was this a tRump thing ? the board should have insurance to cover legal problems, but that is not to cover personal problems…
Ott v. Blom was not a “Trump” thing. It was an anti-incumbent thing. Ott ran against a vote in December, 2022, to raise rates for the first time in ten years. MID was affected by inflation over those years but shielded ratepayers from rising NG and pipeline transfer fee PG&E imposed. The rates had to be increased.
And MID does have insurance if they had been found guilty. But they do not have insurance to pay expense when they win. The frivolous nature of the claim – a political dispute over policy decision (hiring Rhonda) and unsubstantiated allegation of abuse – makes the attorney fees the burden of Director Keating. She had the opportunity to drop the suit and did not. She single handedly caused MID to incur those costs.
As the meme says, FAFO.