Penders, Defense Team Ordered to Pay $13K in Sanctions to Archie

A magistrate judge for the US District Court in the Southern District of New York has ordered Ken Penders and/or his legal team to pay $13,082.25 in attorney’s fees and expenses to Archie Comics, TSSZ has learned from public records.

The award stems not from any ultimate decision made in Penders’s ongoing case with Archie Comics regarding his copyrights, but rather a missed deadline that Archie counsel picked up on.  Penders’s defense team failed to file a portion of the case’s joint pretrial order on time.  That violated a court order, and Archie’s attorneys sprung on it, asking the court to award damages.

“The basis that award was the fact that defendant and his counsel remained in extended and unexcused breach of their obligation to provide the entirety of their portion of the joint pre-trial order,” judge Michael Dolinger wrote in his decision.

While a significant award–especially for Penders, who had seen his financial status questioned in said report–it’s only a portion of what Archie demanded.  More than $25,000 in attorneys’ fees and expenses were originally sought; that number was in effect cut in half.  Archie also sought to classify certain documents from the filing as inadmissible due to their delayed filing; that was ultimately denied by the main judge overseeing the case.

Payment is expected by next Monday, August 20th.

TSSZ has also learned both sides have been ordered by the court to attempt settlement negotiations.  A final pre-trial conference scheduled for September will now act as a status conference, with chances of holding the actual trial somewhat diminished again.  That may not be great news for Penders despite escaping summary judgment last month; hopes his team can convince a jury he truly owns the rights to his creations are now pressed to the backburner for a bit.   But such negotiations failed at first; we will see how successful they are this time around.