According to ancient history, when Perillos of Athens created a new torture device for the delight of Phalaris, the tyrant of Agrigentum of Sicily, he expected to be rewarded handsomely for his handiwork.
What he had fabricated from bronze was a hollow, life-sized bull, in the belly of which the tyrant's enemies could be placed and roasted alive by a fire lit below. The agonized screams of victims supposedly mimicked the bellowing of a raging bull.
Perillos, indeed, was rewarded for his perverse cleverness when Phalaris chose him to be the first victim of the bronze bull. Fittingly, Phalaris was eventually overthrown and suffered the same fate.
Entertainment of this caliber may not be readily available in contemporary western society, but watching brazen plaintiff's attorneys torture each other -- instead of the usual corporate victims -- comes pretty close.
The ongoing "mortal combat" between former partners Rex Carr and Steve Tillery is certainly entertaining the dozens of defendants who have done battle with the duo in the Madison County courthouse over the last several decades.
Carr Korein Tillery became Korein Tillery in 2003 and Carr has been squabbling over the division of fees from settled cases ever since. The dismissal of Carr's eighth suit against his former partners recently was upheld by Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner, who ordered the federal district court in East St. Louis to "assess a proper monetary sanction" on the "out of control" Carr.
Posner also directed the lower court to "consider whether to enjoin Carr from conducting further litigation." Carr, meanwhile, has a ninth suit pending, and liens filed.
Korein Tillery attorney Aaron Zigler thinks the appellate ruling "should finally bring a halt to this seemingly endless litigation."
Have the brazen plaintiff's attorneys suffered enough? Have they gotten a sufficient dose of their own medicine? Let's ask their victims. We suspect they still are enjoying the bellowing of these raging bulls.