A Philadelphia attorney is seeking to appeal a nearly $230,000 judgment against him for allegedly failing to pay back a $25,000 litigation funding loan, but the judge overseeing the case has urged the Pennsylvania Superior Court not to take up the case.

Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Gary Glazer last month issued an opinion asking the intermediate appellate court to quash the appeal in Lawyers Funding Group v. Martucci, which resulted in a $229,875 judgment being entered last year against attorney John Martucci. The judge urged the Superior Court in a brief opinion issued last month to reject, saying that the defendants had failed “to adhere to any rule of court throughout the lawsuit, including failing to file post-trial motions to alert this court of any alleged claim of error.”

“It is clear from the defendants' persistent failure to follow court orders, their failure to participate in discovery, their failure to file any pleading to contest the entry of the judgment, their failure to attend the assessment of damages hearing or contest the results, or to alert this court at any time to any legal error, that defendants have waived any basis for appeal,” Glazer said in a letter to the prothonotary that was part of his Feb. 14 opinion. “This appeal is taken solely to further delay and/or frustrate these proceedings.”

According to court papers, Steven Marino, another Philadelphia attorney, referred his client, Jose Castillo Ramos, to Martucci to file a personal injury lawsuit. Ramos' agreement included a 40 percent contingent fee that Martucci and Marino would split.

The complaint said Martucci then sold “all right, title and interest” in the fee he would get from Ramos' suit to Lawyers Funding Group for $25,000. The agreement said Martucci had to pay back the $25,000, plus a 5 percent per month, or $1,250 per month, interest fee starting from 10 days after Martucci received the fees from the Ramos case. As an assurance under the agreement, Marino agreed to execute an escrow agreement, which the complaint said was a material condition of the agreement.

Ramos' case eventually came to a verdict for $746,000, and, in about August 2014, the legal fee of $149,237 was distributed to each Martucci and Marino.

The complaint said the litigation funder repeatedly demanded payment from Marino and Martucci, but they did not pay back the loan. The defendants sued Martucci for breach of contract and conversion, and sued Marino for negligence and breach of contract and fiduciary duty.

Marino responded by arguing the claims needed to be handled in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court's commerce case management program and that Lawyers Funding Group's claims were deficient. Marino's was eventually transferred there before the matter settled for an undisclosed sum.

According to court records, a default judgment was entered against Martucci in July for $180,290. Martucci petitioned to have the judgment opened, and, after proceedings were allowed to continue, a discovery sanction was entered against Martucci in February. Following a damages assessment held in April, the court entered judgment against Martucci for $229,875, and he filed an appeal in July.

Calls placed Friday to a number listed for Martucci rang for more than a minute before a recorded greeting said no one was available at that number.

Kyle Heisner of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, who represented Marino, declined to comment, and Michael Eidel of Fox Rothschild, who represents Lawyers Funding Group, did not return a call seeking comment.