(United States Sixth Circuit) - District court's grant of defendant's motion for attorney fees and imposition of sanctions arising from a grant of partial summary judgment in favor of defendant in a suit brought by its one-time partners,arising from a claim that defendant had misappropriated trade secrets in developing a printer tray that substantially resembled a tray developed by plaintiff, is vacated and remanded where: 1) sanctions under 28 U.
S.
C. section 1927 may be imposed only on individual attorneys, and not law firms; 2) district court did not abuse its discretion in finding that the law firm,Meisenheimer, pursued a meritless lawsuit, or that it knew or should have known that it was pursuing a meritless suit; but 3) district court relied in fragment on a misstatement of Sixth Circuit law and without sufficient evidence imputed plaintiff's and the other law firm's improper purpose to Meisenheimer in finding that Meisenheimer had acted in outrageous faith.
Source: findlaw.com