Retired Judge Posner must face suit alleging he failed to pay leader of his pro se center

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Retired Judge Posner must face suit alleging…

Trials & Litigation Retired Judge Posner must face suit alleging he failed to pay leader of his pro se center

By Debra Cassens Weiss

September 27, 2023, 2:36 pm CDT

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Judge Richard Posner, a retired judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago, must face a lawsuit alleging that he never paid a promised $120,000 annual salary to an employee who co-led a pro se center. Photo by chensiyuan, CC-BY-SA-4.0,3.0,2.5,2.0,1.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Former federal appeals Judge Richard Posner must face a lawsuit alleging that he never paid a promised $120,000 annual salary to an employee who co-led a pro se center for nearly a year and a half.

U.S. District Judge Theresa L. Springmann of the Northern District of Indiana partly ruled for the plaintiff, Brian Vukadinovich, in a Sept. 25 decision, report Reuters and Law360.

Vukadinovich is seeking $170,000 for work that he performed before the Posner Center of Justice for Pro Se’s closed in July 2019.

Vukadinovich filed his pro se suit against Posner in May 2022.

Posner, a former judge on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Chicago, must face claims for breach of contract and unjust enrichment, Springmann said.

Springmann dismissed Vukadinovich’s fraud claim. But she said Vukadinovich could file an amended complaint with new allegations about experiencing emotional distress because of the barrage of questions that he received when the center closed.

Lawyers for Posner had argued that the case should be tossed because it was filed too late. They also said any contract was between Vukadinovich and the pro se center.

Springmann said more information is needed regarding the statute of limitations defense. She also said Vukadinovich had plausibly alleged that Posner personally guaranteed the salary in a March 2018 oral contract.

Vukadinovich had alleged that Posner orally agreed to pay him his $120,000 annual salary in a lump sum after at least a year. He then sought payment in a February 2022 demand letter.

Posners’ lawyers have also said he did not have the legal capacity to enter into an oral contract with Vukadinovich because he has Alzheimer’s disease. That was not a focus, however, of their motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim, according to Reuters.

Posner received an Alzheimer’s diagnosis about six months after his September 2017 retirement from the bench, one of his lawyers has said.

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