The lawsuit, which has since been amended and now puts damages at $297 million, also claims that Citizens Bank employees defamed and disparaged O'Neill when the relationship between the bank and the King of Prussia developer soured and have harmed other business relationships he had.
In documents filed last month asking Sheppard to dismiss the case, Citizens Bank says O'Neill's claims have no basis in reality. The bank also contends that his suit is retaliation for the bank's trying to collect more than $60 million O'Neill owes for loans connected to the Uptown Worthington project.
In its unsparingly critical brief, Citizens asserts that "behind this facade of a massive, baseless damage claim and overheated, false accusations lies a jumble of patently defective legal claims."
The 87-page document, signed by Robert C. Heim, a lawyer with Dechert L.L.P. representing Citizens Bank and Citizens Financial Group Inc., accuses O'Neill of fabricating "from thin air" future financial obligations by Citizens to the $700 million Worthington development.
In the event Sheppard does not throw out the suit, Citizens has asked that O'Neill be limited to a bench trial, contending that he waived the right to jury trials as part of his financial agreements with the bank.
No more amiable is the 108-page response to the bank's brief filed Tuesday on behalf of O'Neill and his O'Neill Properties Group L.P.
"This case is about the fraud and other wrongdoing of a bank and its parent companies that destroyed the Worthington Project - at a time when it was performing ahead of expectations and was slated to create more than 14,000 jobs," wrote lawyer Steven M. Coren of Kaufman, Coren & Ress P.C.
