Ted Frank, director at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness, at the Federalist Society Annual Lawyers Convention at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, on Thursday, November 14, 2019. Ted Frank, director at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute and the Center for Class Action Fairness, at the Federalist Society Annual Lawyers Convention at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, in November 2019. (Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM)

A federal appeals court has denied a motion for sanctions sought by a class action critic who has appealed a  $1.4 billion consumer class settlement of the Equifax data breach multidistrict litigation.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit denied without comment an April sanctions motion filed by Theodore Frank, the litigation director of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute in Washington, D.C.

Frank asked the Eleventh Circuit to sanction lead counsel for the class of 147 million consumers after class attorneys sought to expedite a small group of objectors' settlement appeals, Frank's among them. Frank claimed that class lawyers misled the appellate court over objectors' willingness to set an expedited schedule—an allegation class lawyers denied.

Ken Canfield of Atlanta's Doffermyre Shields Canfield & Knowles; Norman Siegal of Stueve Siegel Hanson in Kansas City, Missouri; and Amy Keller of DiCello Levitt Gutzler are co-lead counsel for the consumer class.

The legal squabble is part of a larger battle that consumers' class counsel are waging against a handful of individuals, mostly lawyers, branded as "serial objectors" by U.S. District Chief Judge Thomas Thrash of the Northern District of Georgia. Equifax will not pay settlement benefits until the appeals are resolved.

Class lawyers' motion for an expedited appeal stated that Frank, co-objector David Watkins and objector Mikell West, a Corpus Christi, Texas, lawyer, supported an expedited appeal schedule—but only if class counsel abandoned a motion now pending before Thrash that would require Frank and other objectors each to post a $20,000 bond while they appealed the settlement.

Class lawyers cited emails from Frank's counsel and law partner Melissa Holyoak, saying she was "open to an expedited briefing schedule." But after they moved for bond, Holyoak  said in a follow-up email that she would not agree to an expedited briefing schedule "now that we will be engaged in the collateral litigation over the improper appeal bond that you are seeking."

Frank previously told The Daily Report that he supported an expedited briefing schedule at the Eleventh Circuit "upon resolution of the appeal bond issue."  He declined to comment on Thursday's circuit court ruling.

Frank sought the sanctions over what he said were  false claims he and Watkins were using their appeal as leverage for "a personal money grab."

Canfield has declined to comment on Frank's motion and couldn't be reached on Friday. But in court filings, class lawyers accused Frank of seeking "sanctions against class counsel for every perceived slight, misstep, or disagreement."

In Eleventh Circuit filings, they pointed to Holyoak's emails as evidence that they did not misrepresent Frank's position. "Class counsel fail to see how they could have exercised more candor with the court, or how their actions are in any way done in bad faith or harassing to Frank and Watkins," they said.