On his way out the Second Circuit Court door to his ascension to the South Dakota Supreme Court, Judge Mark E. Salter has finally put an end to the Dan Lederman/Stace Nelson robocalling lawsuit.
Yesterday, Judge Salter filed his findings of fact, conclusions of law, and opinion and order granting motion to dismiss for failure to prosecute Case #49CIV12-003477. Dan Lederman and his Rushmore PAC used out-of-state money to sue Daniel Willard in 2012 and then Stace Nelson in 2013 over improperly disclaimed robocalls that Willard and Nelson allegedly deployed against fellow thin-skinned Republicans. A Lake County jury found Willard guilty of four misdemeanor violations of campaign finance law in August 2013 in a separate criminal case. Lederman’s suit hobbled through judicial skepticism, then languished in plaintiffly inaction. In his ruling (signed Friday, filed Monday), Judge Salter declared the case “stale” and the plaintiffs’ inaction “unreasonable and unexplained”:
Three years of inactivity—after Nelson lost his primary bid against Mike Rounds in the 2014 Republican primary, Lederman seems to have lost interest in seriously pressing and proving his case against Nelson. One might conclude that Lederman, now Republican Party state chairman, just wanted to keep this lawsuit hanging over the head of Nelson, now a Republican State Senator, to sap Nelson’s energy and personal finances (hey! Donald Pay! can we call that barratry?).
But Judge Salter says this fight is over, so Lederman and Nelson can sit together at convention, right?
This really guts the lies Lederman has been making claiming I owed him money for his winning this lawsuit in his contorted defense of him being a lifelong Iowa Democrat.
Knowing little of this, “target[ed] with little-used statutes” said Stace, which kinda sounds like a Trump admission to a “witch hunt”. Is Stace surprised to learn “little-known” Mercer’s Cambridge Analytics&Facebook exposed private data to Putin’s meddling, swinging this election for the GOP, thanks to Trump’s campaign manager’s collusion and his boss’s obstruction? America’s “little-used” laws are a bitch.
When A Lawsuit Sits For Years Without Meaningful Action The Law Says It Should Be Dismissed. Judge salter followed the law. I hope Lederman wastes his money on an appeal he will lose. Sen. Nelson should promptly submit his affidavit of costs to Lederman for payment. As the losing party Lederman now owes Sen. Nelson money for his expenses, but not legal fees.
Great point, Ror! As the prevailing party, Nelson is entitled to a really big campaign contribution from his favorite party chair.
Dismissed on a technicality, whimpers Lederman’s flack Pat Powers? I don’t think the plaintiffs sitting around twiddling their thumbs instead of pressing their case with all due haste and respect for the courts is a “technicality.” It’s a serious error on the part of Lederman and his attorney Joel Arends.
By the way, Sen. Nelson. Lederman’s claim that he may appeal is a total bluff. He has no valid basis to appeal, and he knows it. He’s going to use the possibility of appeal as a bargaining chip and have his lawyer ask you to waive your costs in exchange for him waiving his appeal rights. You ought to tell him no, you’ll take the money he owes you and you’ll beat him again on appeal.
Joel Arends seems like the brand of lawyer who would fit right in Drumpf’s WH of lawyers who don’t seem to know how the law(s) work in this country.
Of course, he appears to have kept his nose clean since the Doc Boswell campaign signature collection fiascos.
Dana Ferguson quotes Lederman:
The chairman of the Libertarian Party of South Dakota, Aaron Aylward, probably wouldn’t have misused the “justice” system this way, and I don’t believe he would have lied about it afterward this way either. Is Lederman really the best South Dakota Republicans can do?
Kudos to Judge Salter for patiently following the letter of the law even as Lederman abused it.
@Rorschach You are correct. Lederman running his mouth as usual talking out of both sides. They would have to prove Judge Salter abused his discretion to dismiss a case these clowns only kept alive through opposing our motions to dismiss. He’s been so desperate that his voter registration fraud was disclosed, that the lying SOB was telling people I owed him money because he won the lawsuit.
The SDGOP party chair has been lying about the status of a lawsuit? I’d like to get that on record from someone who heard those words come out of Lederman’s mouth… or his e-mail.
Mr. Nelson, you should send the mails you got from Mr. Lederman, who by all accounts cannot be a lifelong Iowa Democratic member, since he’s been a South Dakota Republican for at least a few months and he still seems to be alive. Your statements are not factual in that regard. It makes us question the rest of them. Not that we all trust Mr. Lederman any further than Klouchek could throw him, and he looks to be a member of your Large Fella Club. Will you sit next to him at the head table at the caucuses?
Mr. Evans wrote:
No, no he is not. Neither I nor my fellow Conservative, Mr. Nelson, voted for Mr. Lederman. There are many Republicans who believe we could do better. But there are some who know it could have been far worse. Imagine, if you will, Mr. Sibby or Mr. DiSanto as the chairman of the Republican Party. Imagine, if you have a gut as strong as Stace, Mr. Ferebee as the chair.