Gotti v. Pinnock
Defendant Theodore A. Pinnock, a now-disbarred attorney residing in the Philippines, filed over 200 cases on behalf of plaintiff Noni Gotti against businesses for alleged violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), allegedly without her knowledge and consent and for disabilities from which she did not suffer.
Gotti thereafter filed this action against Pinnock, his law firm, and his partner, David C. Wakefield.[1] In her second amended complaint—the applicable complaint in this action—(hereafter the complaint), she asserted claims for (1) return of case files, (2) accounting, (3) unprivileged use of identity, (4) breach of fiduciary duty, (5) negligence, (6) professional negligence, (7) breach of contract, (8) money had and received, (9) imposition of constructive trust, (10) forgery, and (11) constructive fraud. In her complaint she also described several other individuals who Pinnock had used to file similar unmeritorious claims to show a pattern of activity that would support an award of punitive damages.
Pinnock, acting in propria persona, responded to the complaint by filing an anti-SLAPP special motion to strike under Code of Civil Procedure (all further undesignated statutory references are to the Code of Civil Procedure) section 425.16. In that motion Pinnock asserted that (1) the complaint was based upon his protected activity of filing litigation in state and federal courts to enforce the rights of disabled persons under the ADA, and (2) the references in the complaint to other litigation filed by Pinnock on behalf of other plaintiffs were improper.
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