Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Java Oil Ltd. v. Sullivan (Cal. Ct. App. - Dec. 2, 2008)

December 2nd was a bad day for several people: (1) California attorney Andrew Dimitriou (see yesterday's post); (2) non-California attorney John Brown (albeit in 1859); and (3) California quasi-attorney Harold Sullivan.

The last of these three had a $3.1 million foreign judgment against him (issued by the Supreme Court of Gibraltar, no less) affirmed by the California Court of Appeal. Rightfully so, I might add.

And I say "quasi-attorney" not because Mr. Sullivan hasn't passed the bar -- he did, long ago -- but rather because he's not currently entitled to practice law in California. As his increasingly-colorful disciplinary record amply reveals.

Which, wholly apart from the merits (the issue in the CoA was simply whether the foreign judgment was entitled to recognition) makes you think that the Supreme Court of Gibraltar might not have been entirely wrong to enter the $3.1 million judgment against him in the first place.