Attorney obtained an order granting a motion for judgment on the pleadings in a Dragonetti and abuse of process action in for his clients, a law firm and large hospital, brought against them by a legal secretary

Attorney obtained an order granting a motion for judgment on the pleadings in a Dragonetti and abuse of process action in for his clients, a law firm and large hospital, brought against them by a legal secretary. In the first of two underlying cases, the Dragonetti defendants sued the secretary's employer, a lawyer and his firm, for breach of a letter of protection that had been signed by the secretary for the benefit of the hospital. The secretary was sued in the second underlying case only after her employer claimed she executed the letter of protection without its knowledge or consent, or that of the employer's client. This defense was raised for the first time by the employer in a motion for summary judgment filed 13 months after the letter of protection case had been filed against it. The case against the secretary was based on the theory that she acted beyond the scope of her authority as an agent of the law firm in signing the letter of protection and thus was liable for the damages growing out of the breach. At trial, this case resulted in a non-suit in the secretary's favor. Later, in the Dragonetti case, the secretary argued it was brought without probable cause and for the improper purpose of pressuring her employer to resolve the letter of protection case. In obtaining a judgment on the pleadings, the attorney argued that the probable cause to sue the secretary was based upon her employer's statements in the summary judgment motion that she acted without authority in signing the letter of protection, and that the hospital, which had no independent knowledge of the secretary, had relied upon the advice of counsel in agreeing to sue her. Finally, in the abuse of process claim, the secretary never alleged that the complaint, the process in the second underlying case, had been perverted from its authorized use of notifying her that she had been sued.