Thomas J. Gagliardo v. Peninsula Regional Medical Center

UNPUBLISHED
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FOURTH CIRCUIT
No. 11-1258
THOMAS J. GAGLIARDO,
Appellant,
and
DEBORAH ASHTON PARSONS,
Plaintiff,
v.
PENINSULA REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER,
Defendant – Appellee.
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METROPOLITAN WASHINGTON EMPLOYMENT LAWYERS ASSOCIATION,
Amicus Supporting Appellant.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of
Maryland, at Baltimore. Marvin J. Garbis, Senior District
Judge. (1:08-cv-03255-MJG)
Submitted: February 3, 2012 Decided: February 24, 2012
Before AGEE, DAVIS, and KEENAN, Circuit Judges.
Affirmed by unpublished per curiam opinion.

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Thomas J. Gagliardo, Appellant Pro Se. Randi Klein Hyatt, Adam
Thomas Simons, KOLLMAN & SAUCIER, PA, Timonium, Maryland, for
Appellee. John R. Ates, ATES LAW FIRM, PC, Alexandria,
Virginia; Richard Randolph Renner, KOHN, KOHN & COLAPINTO, LLP,
Washington, D.C., for Amicus Supporting Appellant.
Unpublished opinions are not binding precedent in this circuit.

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PER CURIAM:
Thomas J. Gagliardo, attorney for Plaintiff Deborah
Parsons, appeals the district court’s order awarding the
Defendant, Peninsula Regional Medical Center, $23,657.75 in
sanctions, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1927 (2006). According to
Gagliardo, the district court abused its discretion when it
imposed sanctions against him. Gagliardo alleges that he
engaged in no bad faith conduct, no proceedings were duplicated
by his conduct, Plaintiff’s federal action was filed in good
faith and dismissed as a matter of judicial economy, and the
Defendant suffered no prejudice because of his conduct. The
Metropolitan Washington Employment Lawyers Association has filed
an amicus curiae brief, in which it claims that the district
court erred when it imposed sanctions on Gagliardo for work
Defendant performed in connection with the pursuit of § 1927
sanctions, and that the district court should not have
sanctioned Gagliardo for moving to voluntarily dismiss a federal
civil rights claim in order to pursue a related state law claim.
Finding no error, we affirm.
Section 1927 “does not distinguish between winners and
losers, or between plaintiffs and defendants.” Roadway Express,
Inc. v. Piper, 447 U.S. 752, 762 (1980). Moreover, “[t]he
statute is indifferent to the equities of a dispute and to the
values advanced by the substantive law.” Id. Instead, the

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statute is “concerned only with limiting the abuse of court
processes.” Id. For this reason, a court considering the
propriety of a § 1927 award must focus “on the conduct of the
litigation and not on its merits.” DeBauche v. Trani, 191 F.3d
499, 511 (4th Cir. 1999).
When a district court imposes an award under § 1927,
we review for an abuse of discretion. Chaudhry v. Gallerizzo,
174 F.3d 394, 410 (4th Cir. 1999). This standard recognizes
that, as in the context of sanctions under Fed. R. Civ. P. 11,
“the district court is better situated than the court of appeals
to marshal the pertinent facts and apply the fact-dependent
legal standard” of § 1927. Cooter & Gell v. Hartmarx Corp., 496
U.S. 384, 402 (1990) (reviewing Rule 11 sanctions for abuse of
discretion). The factual findings underpinning the district
court’s award are reviewed for clear error. Ohio River Valley
Envtl. Coal., Inc. v. Green Valley Coal Co., 511 F.3d 407, 413
(4th Cir. 2007).
We have reviewed the record and considered the
parties’ and amicus’ arguments and find that the district court
did not abuse its discretion when it imposed § 1927 sanctions on
Gagliardo. We also find that the district court properly
sanctioned Gagliardo only for those aspects of the litigation
that would not have occurred but for his vexatious conduct. We
thus affirm the district court’s order. Parsons v. Peninsula

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Reg’l Med. Ctr., No. 1:08-cv-03255-MJG (D. Md. Feb. 10, 2011).
We dispense with oral argument because the facts and legal
contentions are adequately presented in the materials before the
court and argument would not aid the decisional process.
AFFIRMED

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