Seawright v. Charter Furniture Rental, Inc.
United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas
39 F.Supp.2d 795 (1999)
Seawright (plaintiff) had lied to and concealed from his employer Charter (defendant) any association that might expose him to AIDS, meaning Charter had no actual knowledge of any such risk when it fired him for poor performance; Seawright's attorney, Johnson, filed an ADA suit based solely on Seawright's own speculation that Charter secretly knew and fired him for that reason, never contacting Charter or reviewing its performance records beforehand, and the court granted Charter summary judgment before it moved for attorney's fees.
Whether Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 11(b) requires an attorney to conduct a reasonable inquiry into the veracity and good faith of the client's representations.