Former city attorney drops lawsuit against Leftwich

HARLINGEN — Former City Attorney Brendan Hall has dropped his lawsuit against city commissioner Robert Leftwich, saying that he does not want the city to spend money defending Leftwich.

“Although my lawsuit was filed against Mr. Leftwich individually, not in his capacity as a city commissioner, the city and its insurance company hired an attorney to represent him,” Hall said in a statement issued Thursday about his decision to drop the suit.

“My decision to dismiss is not because of any doubts of the merits of my claim but simply because I never intended that the City of Harlingen or its citizens should be responsible for the costs to defend the suit or for any damages awarded by the court,” Hall stated.

Hall’s lawsuit, filed June 3, accused Leftwich of making defamatory and libelous statements to a Valley Morning Star reporter about Hall in a story that was published in the newspaper that same day.

Leftwich said he questioned the city legal department’s billing practices and did not name Hall. However, Hall was the head of the legal department at the time.

Hall could have conducted a preliminary investigation of two airport board members and saved the city $48,000, if he was genuinely concerned about saving the city’s money, Leftwich said Friday.

Hall stated that the suit could be re-filed if “Mr. Leftwich were to continue making slanderous statements about me.”
But Leftwich questioned the merit of Hall’s suit.

“I think, if you look at the verbiage that was the basis of the suit, there was no doubt that it was a frivolous lawsuit,” Leftwich said Friday.