I never quite expected to see a piece from Lowering the Bar that embraced within its structure both “banana lady” and “Judge Posner.”
But Banana Lady and the perhaps overly regarded federal judge Richard Posner (who publishes a book every week or so) did join together in a lawsuit. That is, Judge Posner was judging while Banana Lady was suing — it seems not for the first time and to the intense irritation of Judge Posner, who made a few choice comments about her “frivolous” lawsuits:
… “So her suit has no merit,” Posner wrote on page six.
“But we cannot end this opinion,” he continued, without noting Banana Lady’s “abuse of the legal process by incessant filing of frivolous lawsuits.” She has filed at least 17 mostly frivolous cases since 2009, including one against people who didn’t post a video of a different performance. She had demanded $40,000 for that privilege, and they declined. She then argued that their decision not to pay her constituted “tortious interference with her business,” an argument that did not prevail and caused me to check the “Brilliant Arguments” box for this post.
The court ended its opinion by suggesting that the district court, which has been allowing her to file in forma pauperis (without paying a filing fee) should stop doing that at least until she pays prior litigation debts. That seems like a good idea.
I think I’ve previously mentioned that the rule “anybody can sue anybody for anything at any time” does have a modifier: “anybody who sues can have his lawsuit dismissed.”