State Del. Rick Impallaria will be in court Nov. 3 to defend himself in a lawsuit claiming he owes nearly $16,000 in legal fees from a case involving two men sued for defaming one of Impallaria’s potential political opponents.

Irwin Kramer, an Owings Mills attorney, is seeking the legal fees he claims Impallaria owes him.

Kramer, who filed the lawsuit in June, says Impallaria, a Republican, agreed to pay the legal fees for Stephen Bowen and William Snyder in the 2007 defamation case.

But Impallaria said in a recent interview he never agreed to pay the legal bills, and declined to comment further.

The case stems from the 2006 campaign for the 7th District House of Delegates seat. Bowen and Snyder were chairman and treasurer, respectively, of a group known as Democrats for Responsive Government.

Impallaria, a Republican, was running for re-election in that district, which includes Cockeysville, Kingsville and Middle River.

Democrats for Responsive Government produced mailings and a polling place palm card that negatively targeted Jack Sturgill — a Towson attorney and fellow Democrat who was vying for his party’s nomination to run for one of three seats in the 7th District. Impallaria holds one of those seats.

The materials endorsed Sturgill’s opponents in the Democratic primary.

Sturgill called the tactics by Democrats for Responsive Government “political chicanery,” and after he lost the primary bid, he sued Bowen, Snyder and Democrats for Responsive Government for defamation, seeking $2.8 million.

He ultimately won $2 and an apology.

Kramer’s suit, filed in District Court in Essex, claims Impallaria agreed in January 2008 to pay legal fees on behalf of Bowen and Snyder, whom Kramer characterized as the delegate’s “friends.”

“Although defendant Impallaria was not named in that (Sturgill’s) suit, he decided to fund his friends’ defense,” Kramer’s lawsuit states.

The suit contends that Impallaria asked Kramer and his firm to defend Bowen and Snyder, and Democrats for Responsive Government, but then, “refused to pay for any fees or expenses beyond the rather nominal amount of the initial retainer.”

Kramer’s lawsuit states, “Though neither defendant, Impallaria, nor the clients that he sponsored took issue with the firm’s charges ... Impallaria failed to pay any of the invoices generated, leaving a total balance of $15,649.32.”

Kramer said he called Impallaria several times in an attempt to collect.

Contacted recently, Kramer declined to comment beyond what the lawsuit states.

Impallaria has said he never agreed to pay the legal bills, and has repeatedly denied any involvement with Democrats for Responsive Government.

Lawsuit raises connection issue

During the 2006 primary campaign, Sturgill was the target of both mailings and the ballot card produced by Democrats for Responsive Government, which Sturgill said advertised false endorsements of his primary opponents by then gubernatorial-candidate Martin O’Malley.

At that time, a spokesman for O’Malley told the publisher of this Web site, Patuxent Publishing Co., for a Sept. 19, 2006, newspaper article that O’Malley had made no such endorsements and was not responsible for the card.

Sturgill filed his lawsuit in August 2007 charging that Democrats for Responsive Government, Bowen and Snyder sought to damage his reputation by producing literature with false information. He also said they used a photo of him without permission.

That suit was ultimately settled out of court for the $2 — $1 from each man — and an apology to Sturgill from both Bowen and Snyder.

Afterward, Sturgill said he was satisfied. He said he has always believed Impallaria was behind Democrats for  Responsive Government.

“All of my suspicions were confirmed,” Sturgill said. “To continue to go on would waste a lot of my energy and time, because the culprit had been exposed.”

The lawsuit indeed raised the question of a relationship among Impallaria, Bowen and Snyder — and whether the delegate agreed to pay their legal fees.

Bowen, in a deposition taken by a lawyer representing Sturgill, said he was Impallaria’s cousin. The September 2006 newspaper article quoted Susan Baroch — at the time Snyder’s girlfriend — as saying she and Snyder were friends of Impallaria. Snyder, in a separate deposition, acknowledged his friendship with the delegate.

And Snyder himself, in a sworn deposition taken Feb. 13, 2009, by Darcy Massof, Sturgill’s attorney, said Impallaria had hired Kramer and promised to cover legal fees, according to court transcripts.

“Did (Impallaria) say that he would find someone to pay your attorney fees?” asked Massof.

“He said he would take care of it,” Snyder answered.

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