11 Mass. App. Ct. 1020 | Mass. App. Ct. | 1981
A single justice of this court awarded the plaintiff $1,500 in counsel fees under G. L. c. 231, § 6F, inserted by St. 1976, c. 233, § 1, to compensate the plaintiff for responding to the defendants’ numerous attempts before the single justice to rescind, or avoid compliance with, certain orders for discovery. The defendants have appealed. See Katz v. Savitsky, 10 Mass. App. Ct. 792, 793-796 (1980). We affirm the order and the award.
There is sufficient support in the record for the single justice’s conclusion that the defendants knew or should have known when they answered the plaintiffs action for damages that their counterclaims (as opposed to their third-party action) lacked any substantial factual or legal support. The defendants’ response to the two orders entered on June 22 and 28, 1979, which were designed to govern the extent and progress of the discovery and to put the case on track for a prompt trial, was to claim several
So ordered.