Attorney David Smith said Monday he is seeking replacement counsel to end his firm's association with a fishermen's $1 million lawsuit against the Ciulla family and its now defunct auction business, alleging years of "skimming" from fees owed on fish sales.
On Nov. 9, the Ciullas filed a "motion to disqualify counsel" based on "prior representation" of the auction by Stephen Ouellette, Smith's partner in the professional association, Ouellette & Smith. Ouellette, based in Gloucester, is one of the East Coast's leading fishing and maritime attorneys.
U.S. District Court Judge William Young issued an order Nov. 22 closing the suit "without prejudice" while noting that the case "may be reopened upon motion by any party" once the "above-entitled impediment to the trial has been removed."
"There was a potential conflict," said Ouellette, who had defended the Ciulla family's Gloucester Seafood Display Auction early in the last decade in the first of three cases brought against it by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Read the complete story in The Gloucester Times