EAST ST. LOUIS – Former U.S. magistrate judge Stephen Williams will make $425 an hour managing an antitrust suit he left behind when he resigned.
On Feb. 19, new Magistrate Judge Mark Beatty appointed him as special master for proceedings against Blue Cross and its Southern Illinois Health Care affiliate.
Williams must now resolve motions he didn’t resolve while on the bench.
He works for the firm of Kuehn, Beasley and Young in Belleville.
Thomas Pliura of LeRoy, Ill. sued Blue Cross and its affiliate in 2012, on behalf of Marion Health Care.
Pliura, a physician, held ownership and management interests in his client.
He claimed Blue Cross suppressed competition for outpatient surgery in Jackson and Williamson counties through exclusive contracts and related conduct.
Blue Cross moved to dismiss the complaint.
In March 2013, former magistrate judge Phil Frazier stayed discovery pending resolution of the motion.
Former district judge David Herndon resolved the motion in August 2013, by dismissing most of the counts in the complaint.
Pliura amended the complaint, and Blue Cross moved to dismiss it.
Pliura moved to lift the stay on discovery in 2014, and Frazier denied the motion.
In August 2014, when District Judge Staci Yandle joined the court, the clerk assigned the case to her.
In May 2015, she ruled that Pliura could proceed on nearly all counts.
She wrote that Marion Health Care properly alleged an illegal tying arrangement between the defendants in violation of the Sherman Act.
“A plaintiff may establish monopoly power by evidence that a firm has profitably raised prices above the competitive level,” she wrote.
Yandle found Marion Health Care pleaded sufficient facts to infer market power due to charging prices above competition for a sustained period without consequence.
She lifted Frazier’s stay on discovery.
Frazier retired and Williams replaced him in February 2016.
In March 2016, Pliura and defense counsel Stephen Wu of Chicago agreed that Williams would replace Yandle and run the case by himself.
They signed a form stating, “If this case is transferred on consent to a magistrate judge, major criminal cases will not interfere with its scheduling and progress…This means that it is likely this civil case will be resolved sooner and at less expense to the parties if a magistrate judge decides the case.”
In July 2016, Williams ruled that all information produced to Pliura by non parties would be viewed by outside counsel’s eyes only.
He wrote that outside counsel did not include Pliura or anyone in his office.
Marion Health Care complied by retaining Richard Wolfram of New York City.
Williams set trial for February 2018.
In September 2017, Blue Cross moved to disqualify Pliura as trial counsel.
Wu wrote that Pliura would be defending his own credibility.
He also wrote that Pliura answered questions at his deposition with information he learned in discovery.
Pliura answered other questions with, “Asked and answered,” he wrote.
He wrote that Pliura couldn’t be an objective witness when he had a three fold stake in the outcome as shareholder, manager, and attorney.
Pliura and Wu reached a compromise to hold a bench trial with Pliura available as a witness for rebuttal only.
Williams ordered Marion Health Care to retain standby counsel. He ruled that under no circumstances could Pliura testify apart from examination by standby counsel.
In October 2017, Pliura and Blue Cross filed summary judgment motions and motions to limit evidence and testimony.
Last January, Williams vacated the trial setting.
He wrote that he’d set a hearing about a trial date if the matter should proceed past summary judgment.
Last February, the antitrust division of the Justice Department in Washington stepped into the case with a statement of interest.
Assistant attorney general Jonathan Lasken wrote that Blue Cross incorrectly asserted a rule of per se legality for short term exclusive arrangements.
“The Supreme Court has long held that exclusive contracts are evaluated under the rule of reason, and may be condemned if their practical effect is to foreclose a substantial portion of the market to competition,” Lasken wrote.
“Where the uncontroverted evidence indicates that the challenged exclusive contracts are nominally of limited duration, a plaintiff bears the burden of proving that the contracts nevertheless are exclusionary.”
He wrote that the court should reject per se legality, “and instead consider the evidence proffered to determine whether there is a genuine issue of disputed fact for trial.”
Last March, Blue Cross turned the apparent setback into a victory lap.
“The Department of Justice’s statement of interest confirms that the court should grant Southern Illinois Health Care’s motion for summary judgment,” Wu wrote.
He wrote that Lasken’s analysis of antitrust law and burden of proof supported a position that Marion Health Care could not prevail at trial.
He wrote that the statement of interest took no position on whether summary judgment was appropriate, and that it didn’t address other grounds for summary judgment like causation, harm, and market definition.
Williams held a hearing on summary judgment and evidence motions in April, and took them under advisement.
He held no further hearings and the motions remained pending when he resigned.
Beatty took the case on Jan. 8, in his first week at work.
On Jan. 15, Pliura moved to set a status hearing.
Beatty held a conference on Feb. 13, and on his own motion he notified the parties that he considered appointing a special master.
“Given the voluminous filings and extremely complex nature of the issues, the court is unable to effectively or timely address the motions,” Beatty wrote.
He wrote that he invited comment and both parties were receptive to the idea.
The lawyers who consented to Williams in 2015 consented to him again.
Beatty signed an appointment order on Feb. 19, granting Williams authority to hold an evidentiary hearing on any motion.
He wrote that Williams could assist him with legal analysis.
He gave Williams 150 days to prepare a report and recommendations.
Marion Health Care and Blue Cross will evenly split the fee for Williams.