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The Pennsylvania Supreme Court will not take up an appeal from a Philadelphia attorney seeking to overturn a nearly $230,000 judgment against him for allegedly failing to pay back a $25,000 litigation funding loan.

The high court denied allocatur April 23 in Lawyers Funding Group v. Martucci. Defendants John Martucci Jr. and Martucci Law Offices had appealed from a Oct. 26, 2018, per curiam judgment order from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that dismissed the defendants' appeal “for failure to comply with Pa.R.C.P. 227.1 (requiring the filing of post-sentence motions) and Pa.R.A.P. 1925(b) (requiring the filing of a statement of errors complained of on appeal).”

The Philadelphia judge who oversaw the case at the trial level had urged the Superior Court not to take up the case.

In February of last year, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas Judge Gary Glazer issued an opinion asking the intermediate appellate court to quash Martucci's appeal from a $229,875 judgment that had been entered against him in 2017. The judge said 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, 2018, 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 an additional 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. The claims against Marino were eventually transferred there before the matter settled for an undisclosed sum.

According to court records, a default judgment was entered against Martucci in July 2018 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.

A call placed to a number listed for Martucci on the appeals court docket led to a voicemail that was not set up.

Kyle Heisner of Marshall Dennehey Warner Coleman & Goggin, who represented Marino, declined to comment, and Alan Zibelman of Zibelman Legal Associates in Philadelphia, who represents Lawyers Funding Group, did not return a call seeking comment.