BEAUMONT – The very next day after filing a petition for damages and request for an injunction against a San Antonio law firm and a former client, the Morgan Law Firm filed a motion to dismiss.
Seeking up to $500,000 in damages, Beaumont attorney John Morgan filed the suit against the Quintanilla Law Firm, Vincent Quintanilla and Maxie Hemby (a former client of his) on March 21 in Jefferson County District Court.
According to the petition, Morgan opened an office in San Antonio last March. In the summer of 2017, Morgan received an angry phone call from a Quintanilla Law Firm employee threatening to press criminal charges against him for allegedly pouching a client.
Morgan claims he did not represent the client. The suit states subsequently a client dropped the Quintanilla Law Firm and then retained Morgan’s firm.
The Quintanilla Law Firm accused him of unlawfully soliciting the client. Morgan offered to make the firm whole but the offer was rejected. A settlement was then reached and Quintanilla signed a release admitting under oath that he committed extortion.
The suit then states the Quintanilla Law Firm solicited Hemby, a client who had been represented by the Morgan Law Firm on a personal injury claim.
Quntanilla stated that he had an affidavit from Hemby proving she was illegally solicited by Morgan and that the Morgan Law Firm engaged in barratry.
In addition to extortion, the suit further accuses the Quintanilla defendants of stalking and other harassing behaviors.
“Mr. Quintanilla is what is commonly referred to as a ‘bottom-feeder lawyer,’ who makes his living in an illegitimate manner, and has a very poor reputation,” the suit states.
On March 22, the day after the suit was filed, Morgan filed a motion to dismiss without prejudice, court records show.
Judge Donald Floyd, 172nd District Court, has been assigned to the case.
Case No. E-201492