After a baseless lawsuit was dropped, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) is seeking sanctions against a former employee, Scott Smith, and his legal team from the Citizen Action Defense Fund. Smith alleged retaliation by WSDOT related to Washington's cap-and-invest program and its impact on fuel prices, a claim refuted after extensive research and discovery processes.
In legal documents, WSDOT elaborated on their stance, referencing the firm's pursuit of the lawsuit despite evidence to the contrary. Subsequently, discovery procedures revealed gaps in Smith's text messaging records, suggesting a possible intentional deletion of messages. When the agency confronted Smith with evidence of said texts obtained from other sources, he retracted his previous statement that the texts never existed, claiming they were "lost" instead. As reported by WSDOT's news release, the agency pointed out, "That suspicious timing and other facts make it highly likely these 'lost' text messages were deleted by Smith himself." Before a definitive forensic examination of the phone could be initiated, Smith withdrew his case.
WSDOT's counteraction could set a precedent, as typically, defendants cannot claim costs and fees even when successfully defending against a lawsuit. Nonetheless, given the frivolous nature of Smith's lawsuit and the subsequent increase in state expenditures, the agency is justified in calling for the court to impose penalties on Smith and Citizen Action Defense Fund. The lawsuit eroded not only the courts' time but also the taxpayers' resources, who funded the legal defense.
WSDOT's decision to initially offer the law firm a chance to avoid sanctions by ending the lawsuit, which the firm ultimately declined, further displays the lengths to which the state agency went to mitigate costs before pursuing legal retribution. Not long after, Citizen Action Defense Fund briefly considered withdrawing from representing Smith due to ethical concerns, only to reverse their decision and continue with the representation. Smith's request to dismiss the lawsuit was eventually granted on May 16, with a sanctions hearing scheduled shortly after on August 22, in the Thurston County Superior Court, as detailed by WSDOT.
