An attorney was sanctioned $10,000 for attempting to transfer a case to federal court days after an adverse state court ruling that was built on approximately four years of litigation on the state level.

Southern District Judge Paul Engelmayer said the removal bid by Richard Abrahamsen of Abrahamsen Law was “patently, a ploy to subvert that adverse ruling. It cannot be said to reflect a reasonable or responsible determination on his part based on the facts and case law that removal remained timely.”

In addition to the sanction, Engelmayer's decision Wednesday in Mintz & Gold v. Daibes, 15-cv-1218, sent the case back to state court.